Magikarp Diem
by satellitestorm
Summary: A Slice of Life fic. It's all about living life to the fullest for Kate the Braixen, Cordon the Frogadier and Xis the Quilladin. Whether it's a group picnic in their backyard or a solo trip to the city, the three are intent to squeeze every hour right down to the last second.
1. 6:00am

Two Pokémon, an Espeon and an Umbreon, met together in a space where the light met the darkness.

"It is time for you take over, Sister." the Umbreon said to the Espeon, as he passed onto her a black and white baton that split the colours from the middle.

"Very well, Brother." the Espeon nodded, aware of her duty. "It must be done so, without fail."

As soon as the Espeon received the baton with her mouth, everything faded into white.

* * *

Looking at the edge of the eastern horizon, a tiny ball of yellow light began to glow. As it mixed in with the darkness of the night sky, the sky lightened and emitted brilliant hues of orange and purple. The stars, having fulfilled their purpose, began to quietly slip away into the light.

As the sun began to hover just above the horizon line, it began to shine upon the residence that housed our characters Xis the Quilladin, Kate the Braixen and Cordon the Frogadier, whom were all fast asleep in their beds.

Xis was sound asleep in his bed of hay, with his blanket sprawled messily on himself. He was breathing calmly through his mouth, and his eyes were peacefully closed. As the sun was high enough to shine above the wall under the windows, the sunlight shone directly on his body, causing him to stir in his sleep. However, that wasn't enough to wake him up immediately; it will take some time for his body to react accordingly.

In the bedroom located south of Xis, Kate was asleep in her bed that had a thin fabric covering over the hay. She was just as tranquil as Xis, but her blanket was much neater and less creased. And when you looked closely, you could see the rise and fall of her blanket every time she took a breath. Kate's window was facing southwards, so when the sun shone its sunlight, the rays began to strike the west wall, and it slowly inched its way towards her face. It would only be a matter of time until she could taste the warmth that would land upon her tongue.

In the bedroom located west of Kate, Cordon was dozing in his hammock. I may be mistaken, but it looked like he had only just tried to fall asleep. He frequently tossed and turned, and his hands were rather fidgety. He was also mumbling a bit too. As Cordon's window faced westwards, the extent of the sun's power weren't to be fully realized on this Frogadier at this time. But light is a clever thing; using the power of diffraction, it would give Cordon his own little dose of sunshine (even if he really needed it or not.)

As the Morning Sun hovered ever higher, it painted the sky with a light yellow coat, with a full blue overcoat waiting to be applied. With the next hour quickly approaching, the time until our characters' awakening grew ever shorter.

* * *

**AN: Excluding the Author's Note, there is a strict 1000 word limit per chapter. The purpose of the chapter was to quickly establish the setting and its characters; any more in my opinion might deviate from its purpose. **

**Even though this chapter was very short, it took me a long time to write it as I had a difficult time trying to describe a sunrise in a way that would leave a decent impact. **


	2. 7:00am

The morning sky was clear and bright, slowly shifting from a pale yellow to its widely recognizable shade of light blue. Standing on the wooden veranda was Kate, who was brushing her orange ear fur while facing the sun.

Indoors, Xis was peering through the transparent sliding door with his claws on the glass. He wanted to join Kate on the veranda, so he pulled the sliding door handles away from each other like a pair of curtains, walked through the door and stood next to her with his arms resting on the railing.

"Good morning, Kate!" he turned said to Kate in a cheerful tone. "The breeze sure is lovely today!"

However, Kate smelt a breeze that wasn't lovely at all. It caused her brushing arm to twitch in repulsion, causing her a lot of discomfort. She then placed the brush on the railing and turned to Xis while covering her nose.

"Ugh, Xis!" she said in a nasally voice. "Your breath stinks! Go and brush your teeth!"

"Aww... fine." Xis complied as he walked back inside with a slow plod. He felt a little sad that she didn't return a cheerful greeting back, but he got over it within a few seconds. While Xis was gone, Kate went back to brushing her ear hair.

The bathroom was almost what you'd expect from an average suburban home on Earth. The 'almost' part came from the fact that it had no shower or bathtub; just a small area where you could wash yourself with the nearby bucket.

At the bathroom's vanity, Xis took the green toothbrush from its holder and took a tube of toothpaste. You'd think that a Pokémon such as himself would have no need to brush its teeth. But in a universe where giving human like qualities to non-humans (anthropomorphism) is common, you might as well accept it.

Instead of squeezing the toothpaste onto the toothbrush like a rational anthro-whatever thingy would do, Xis opted to squeeze the toothpaste into his mouth before brushing. He made sure to brush his buck teeth front and back so that it would shine no matter where light struck upon them.

After thoroughly brushing every surface of his mouth, he rinsed the toothbrush with water from the tap and placed it back in its holder, before rinsing out his mouth. Now Kate won't have to berate him on his hygiene practices for a few more hours, lest he happened to come across a mud puddle...

As Xis went to the veranda a second time, Kate was doing some calisthenics. Or should I say... Kalosthetics. Feel free to groan.

These stretching exercises were essential in Kate's morning routine. It helped her to dust off the morning cobwebs and ready herself for a new day. Xis would often join in as well, because it was fun to do, especially with a friend.

Kate was currently doing some side stretches, leaning over to her right with her left arm overhead. Xis joined in and mimicked her moves as best as he could. However, his round body made it difficult for him to do so, and he awkwardly leaned to the side and fell over, causing Kate to laugh.

"Oh Xis!" she exhaled in front of him in short bursts. "You really aren't the most flexible of Pokémon, aren't you?"

As she laughed, Xis felt the urge to cover his face and twinge his quills. It wasn't from shame, however; it was the fact that something smelled like a Skuntank!

"Urk, something smells terrible!" he said while he still covered his face.

"Uhh... I don't know what you implying," Kate said with shifty looks.

"You didn't brush your teeth, didn't you?" Xis pointed a finger at her with accusation.

"Fine! You got me," she gave in easily. "I'll be back in a few minutes." She then walked back into the house through the sliding door to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Xis waited for her at the veranda, and he placed his arms on the railings once again. He could feel the gentle breeze that he had talked about blowing through the area; it was cool and refreshing. He then looked up at the sun, which was as yellow as an egg yolk. Speaking of egg yolk, that reminded him to go and have his breakfast soon.

* * *

**AN: About the word 'anthropomorphism'... this plays a factor on what Pokémon I choose as characters. I am biased towards Pokémon that have at the very least hands so that they can interact with human-made objects like hair brushes. But that doesn't mean that Pokémon like Ekans or Electrode will be entirely left out; when the opportunity arises, I'll put them in.**


	3. 8:00am

As a wall clock's hourly hand pointed directly to eight, Kate and Xis were walking into the kitchen to prepare themselves some breakfast. Cordon was still not yet awake.

"I'm going to have mixed berries with a bit of yoghurt," said Kate as she headed for the fridge. "How about you, Xis?"

"Toast with honey spread for me," Xis replied as walked to the pantry. The fridge and the pantry were on the opposite sides of the kitchen, so they had to split up.

The fridge contained shelf upon shelf of chilled food. Kate had meticulously sorted the food into different categories, with each category assigned to a particular shelf. It was easy for Kate to take out the tub of sweetened yoghurt as it belonged to the 'dairy' category. On the same shelf was a carton of MooMoo milk; it came straight from the Miltank itself, right before an intense process of separation, pasteurization and homogenization. Kate thought that Xis might appreciate a glass of his favourite drink, so she took it out along with her along with the tub of yoghurt. With her paws full, she shut the door with her foot.

The pantry was structurally same as the fridge, but it contained a different range of items. When Xis opened the pantry, an almost overwhelming scent of fresh ingredients came across his nose. Just yesterday, the two had emptied and cleaned the entire pantry before replacing it with fresh food.

The scent smelled rather heavenly to Xis, and he couldn't help but drool a little. He reached for the Heatmor-Brand Bread Loaf that was wrapped in **plastic** packaging (poor Omanyte!) and subsequently a jar of Combee Honey, all easily locatable thanks to Kate.

There was a counter-top with three bar stools where the trio would eat their meals; Kate and Xis placed all their ingredients on the counter-top before deciding the next step. For Kate, she had to get the bag of mixed berries from the freezer, and Xis had to get out the toaster from one of the cupboards. When he found it, he placed it on the preparation counter near the kitchen sink. The toaster was a standard 2 slice model; it was capable of toasting up to two slices of bread, and bread only. You know what they say... all toasters toast bread.

Xis had to first unplug the coffee maker before plugging in the toaster. If you're curious as to what the coffee maker is for, it's for making coffee.

After putting in the bread and pushing the lever down on the toaster. Xis went to grab some utensils; a spoon and a bowl for Kate, and a small plate for himself. He placed them on the counter-top before taking a seat on a bar stool to wait for his toast.

A few minutes later, the Bread had evolved into Toast, and it popped up as soon as it had finished evolving. Kate took out the hot slice with her bare fingers and placed it on Xis' plate. In the span of time the bread took to evolve, all the ingredients save the honey jar were packed away. And that was packed away soon enough, leaving two complete meals for the both of them; a bowl of yoghurt drizzled with a heap of mixed berries for Kate, and two slices of honey spread on toast for Xis. They each had a glass of Moomoo Milk in their hands, and clinked their glasses together before commencing the meal. As they say in Kalos, bon appétit!

* * *

"That was an amazing breakfast," Xis sighed in satisfaction as he wiped his mouth with his arm as he finished his breakfast.

"I agree," Kate smiled with pleasure. "I've never had a breakfast with ingredients as fresh as this."

"With such a nutritious breakfast, I feel ready to start the day for real!" Xis exclaimed while he clenched his fists, a sign that he felt energized and raring to go.

"So why don't you start the day with a little cleaning up?" Kate replied with a sly smile. She showed him the counter-top full of scattered crumbs with the odd berry and the small puddle of milk that spilled on the floor when they clinked their glasses together.

"I didn't mean it in that way!" Xis nodded his head side to side in refusal.

"How about a game of Sage-Sear-Pour to decide who cleans up?" Kate challenged him to a variant of Rock-Paper-Scissors.

"You're on!" Xis accepted her challenge.

So Kate clenched one of her paws into a fist to match Xis', and they began to start the game.

* * *

**AN: Did you know that plastic comes from oil, and a source of oil are fossil fuels? Since Pokémon like Omanyte and Archen are revived from fossils, what does that imply when it comes to plastic packaging? Think about it for a second.**


	4. 9:00am

After Xis finished cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast, he joined Kate in collecting the mail from the Delivery Pelipper that was waiting for them near the mailbox every day at 9am. From the front door to the mailbox, they used a stone paved path that was decorated with hardy flowery shrubs on the sides.

"Here's the mail, it never fails," Xis sang on his way to the mailbox.

"It makes me want to wag my tail!"

"When it comes I wanna wail-"

"Xis, please stop!" Kate interrupted him with a palm outstretched. "It's embarrassing."

Xis just shrugged and made a goofy grin as they went to meet up with the Delivery Pelipper.

The Delivery Pelipper waved at Kate and Xis with a joyful smile, as if he was familiar with them for quite some time. The two did the same in return.

"Good morning, Odel!" Kate and Xis greeted in unison.

"Morning to you both, Kate and Xis!" Odel replied. He was perched on their stainless steel mailbox; it was a blue cuboid box that had a one way slit. At one time, Kate, Cordon and Xis were arguing on what colour the mailbox was to be painted, so they resorted to the game Sage, Sear and Pour. Naturally, it all ended with a tie, so Cordon painted it blue while the two were asleep, and there it stuck.

"We're here to collect our mail, as usual," Kate said to Odel, putting her paw out in order to receive them. She was given a single letter, taken straight out of the bill of the Pelipper itself.

"That's all for the moment, I'm afraid," Odel adjusted his delivery cap, feeling undeserved shame. "However, your copy of The Delibird Dispatch will come around in the next hour if you're hankering for more printed material."

"That's all right, Odel," Kate assured him. "We already have lots of unread mail that will keep us busy for the next hour." She pointed to the mailbox underneath his feet, at the side which had a padlock on it to prevent theft.

"Oh! I think I recall that you were away on a trip to the Uncharted Desert a few days ago," Odel said in realization.

"That's right," Xis nodded. "I remember it rather well." He began to think back to the time when the trio were exploring an ancient burial tomb. He remembered it as being rather unique and a lot of fun.

"That's why the red flap was up, so I had to put all that mail in the slot," Odel finally made sense for himself.

"Bingo," Kate said as she held a small key in her paw, readying to take out the mail from the mailbox. Odel saw that he to fly off so that she could open it properly, and used it as an opportunity to set off.

"Another letter, duly delivered. A postman's job is never done." Odel said with a formal salute as he flew off the mailbox and into the sky. "See you both tomorrow! And hopefully Cordon too!"

"Thanks and goodbye!" Kate called out to him with her hands cupped around her mouth.

"See ya!" Xis enthusiastically shouted as he waved goodbye to Odel.

As Odel headed eastward towards the Morning Sun, Kate went straight to work on unlocking the padlock. It took a bit of time (Cordon would have done it a flash), but Kate managed to unlock it. A flood of paper began to burst out of the mailbox, which would've caused a few paper cuts if it came to contact with anyone. Fortunately, Kate jumped out of the way in time. Even if they did scratch Kate, it wouldn't be very effective.

"Hold all of these, will you?" Kate said to Xis as she unloaded onto him the whole pile of letters on him one by one onto his arms. She then picked up and held the soggy letter given by Odel that was temporarily placed on the ground so Kate could work on the padlock.

"Okay," Xis nodded as he followed Kate back to the front door. They decided to cut through the front yard that contained a few flower beds filled with fascinating flora (5-chain alliteration combo!)

* * *

At the dining counter-top, Kate and Xis were seated on the bar stools sorting through the mail. It was sorted into four categories; coupons, bills, advertising and that one letter Kate was holding onto.

"So what's the letter you're holding about?" Xis eagerly asked Kate in curiousity.

"Hold your Ponytas Xis, I'm opening it right now," Kate said as she opened up the letter with her fingers. She didn't have the time nor the patience to use one of those fancy letter openers.

As Kate took out its contents and skimmed through it, she gave Xis a quick summary of it.

"It's a letter from our publisher," she said as she put the letter to the side. "The royalties that we have received have been placed into our bank account."

"We have royalties?" Xis tilted his head to the side, rather confused. "Since when?"

"From a book that we helped him to publish. It's based on a true story."

"You mean that time when we..."

"Mmm-hmm." Kate gave him a nod as she went to pick up an advertising leaflet about Leavanny's Tailoring. Xis just continued to sit on his seat, a little stunned.

"No way..." Xis said in disbelief. But that only lasted for a few seconds, as Xis moved on to pick up the coupon for Slurpuff and Amortisse's Pâtisserie. Wow, 30 percent off a set of 6 Deluxe Citrus Poképuffs, yum!

* * *

**AN: The red flap was used as a signal between the trio and Odel to tell them whether they were away or not. If the flap was up, they were out. If the flap was down, they weren't. However, there might be one problem with that; what if some prankster decided to push it down, just for kicks?**

**There are two references mentioned in this chapter; one's right up your face and the other one's a very obscure quote. Good luck getting them both.**


	5. 10:00am

Kate and Xis had just finished going through all their mail (while seated at the kitchen counter-top) when Cordon walked past them and into the kitchen. He looked like he'd been hit by a head-on collision with a Head-Smash Rock-Head Aggron.

"Morning, Cordon!" Xis greeted him with his usual cheeriness.

"Go away." Cordon grumbled as he went to switch on the coffee maker. He had already set it up last night.

"Wow, you're the essence of morning cheer," Kate sarcastically said with a smug grin. She felt great to get back at Cordon for once, for all the sarcastic remarks she had to put up with from him for years.

"Look, I'm not a morning person," Cordon irritably replied while he sloppily leaned his back on the fridge. "And I hoped to sleep past it."

Cordon decided to wait for his coffee to drip by sitting on the unoccupied seat at the kitchen counter-top. He expected the newspaper to come by at this hour, so he asked Xis to fetch it for him.

"No way," Xis refused with his arms crossed. "I've already done enough favors for the time being."

"Come on," Cordon tried to convince him. He then produced a small, irregularly shaped biscuit into his hand (he probably prepared it beforehand) and held it in front of Xis.

"Would you do it... for a Stoutland Snack?" Cordon wiggled the treat in front of his eyes.

The treat looked deliciously crunchy and bite-sized, and its Sweet Scent (though artificial) proved to be too alluring for Xis to resist.

"I'll do it!" Xis agreed with a nod.

"Good choice," replied Cordon. He pointed out the kitchen window at the mailbox outside, and told him to "Fetch!"

So Xis ran out of the house towards the mailbox where the newspaper was placed at the base. In the meantime, Cordon went over to a cupboard in order to take out a container named 'Sugar' before attending to the coffee maker.

"I can't believe you bribed him with a treat," Kate tsked at Cordon with a nod of disapproval from her seat.

"I wouldn't call it a bribe," Cordon argued. "I call it a mutual agreement."

As Cordon readied a mug of freshly brewed coffee on the counter-top, Xis returned with the newspaper like a Stoutland would carry it; in his mouth and on all fours. As Xis delivered it to Cordon, he petted him on the head and took the paper out of his mouth.

"That's a good boy." Cordon rewarded Xis by throwing the biscuit up into the air for Xis to catch. Xis caught it in his mouth, and Kate gave herself a double facepalm while nodding in disbelief.

With the whole thing over and done with, Cordon unrolled and opened the newspaper in order to read it. The newspaper was called The Delibird Dispatch; a newspaper firm that distributes its papers to everyone in the yet to be named region. It is a subsidiary of the Pelipper Mail Delivery Enterprise – Owned by State.

Cordon flipped back the unread side of the newspaper so that he could hold all of it in his left hand. Using his right hand, he opened the sugar container and transferred some of it into his coffee using a tablespoon. When I meant 'some', I meant several tablespoons.

"That's a LOT of sugar," Xis said in surprise as Cordon piled on the tablespoons.

"I know," Cordon replied, his eyes fixated on the newsprint. "I'm going to need this much if I'm going to get through the day."

"I don't think that's actually sugar," Kate stated her opinion. "To be honest, I haven't seen a jar so... suspicious."

"It could be poison!" Xis said in a rather paranoid tone.

"Don't be ridiculous," Cordon dismissed his idea. "Why would I, lest anyone else, put poison in coffee?"

"I've read about a guy named Diego who fell into a coma after someone slipped poison in his coffee." Xis recalled a story he remembered.

"And what does that have to do with me?" Cordon replied, unable to make any sense of what he was saying.

"I think Xis is trying to tell you not to put in so much," Kate said, unable to make sense of it either. "Too much sugar can be a poison in itself."

"Fine, whatever." Cordon gave up and tightly closed the container. He put his paper down in order to take a sip of his coffee that was overloaded with sugar. He felt oddly energized.

"Well, it's time for us to do some cleaning soon," Kate said as she stood up from her bar seat.

"Hooray!" Xis reacted with excitement.

"As by we," Cordon asked Kate, "you mean you and Xis?" He was dreading her reply.

"I thought you were more astute than that, Cordon," Kate replied with a wink. "We're **all** going to take part in cleaning the house!"

As Kate and Xis exited the kitchen to get the materials ready for cleaning, Cordon slouched forward in his seat, his right arm extending past the counter-top while holding his coffee mug.

"Today's going to be a long day," Cordon muttered, stretching out the 'o' in long.

* * *

**AN: Now that Cordon's awake, there will be a lot more talking than before. I tend to focus more on dialogue instead of description the more characters that are present. **

**There are three references hidden in this chapter. Here's a hint for one: Did you know that the abbreviation for 'Pelipper Mail Delivery Enterprise – Owned by State' is PMDEOS? Does the abbreviation ring any Heal Bells?**


	6. 11:00am

"Time to clean the CAAAAASTLE!" Xis shouted as he walked into the living room while holding a bucket of water and a mop in his claws.

"As the idiom goes," Kate said as she fluffed her duster made out of Murkrow feathers. "A Pokémon's home is its castle."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Cordon grumbled as he slouched on the armchair with a broom lying lazily on the floor beside him.

The trio were now all present in the living room with their equipment; they were ready for some house maintenance. Each day of the week they would target a specific part of the house. Today, Kate and Cordon were assigned to the living room, while Xis was assigned to the front entrance lobby.

"All right, time to get to work!" Kate initiated the proceedings while holding her duster up high. "Let's go!"

"All right!" Xis shouted while holding his mop up high, accidentally flicking some water from the end of the mop onto Cordon's face. He did not look amused at all. Now would be a good time for Xis to scamper his way to the lobby.

* * *

The lobby was a thin hallway, generally full of things that would make their home feel more inviting, like a welcoming mat and a coat hanger. Why the trio needed a coat hanger at all in the first place is not to be questioned.

After looking around the lobby for a bit, Xis began to dunk the stringy mop in the bucket full of detergent water and wrung it out. He then began to wipe the floor with large strokes, as if he was painting on the floor with an oversized paintbrush. After a few cycles of rinsing, wringing and wiping, the entire floor (even the area under the welcoming mat) was covered with soapy suds.

Because the lobby was reasonably small, it took Xis about five minutes to completely cover the floor. He decided to wait for the soap to do its thing, so he leapt up onto a nearby table drawer and sat on it. He would need to clean it later, because cleaning all the furniture was part of his duty. But for now, it'll just act as a temporary chair.

Meanwhile, Kate and Cordon were cleaning in the living room; Kate was dusting the furniture while Cordon stood around idly while holding a broom. He had a dull expression on his face, and the broom he held was so loosely gripped that it could fall at any moment.

"Cordon, sweep the floor," Kate commanded him in a stern tone while she dusted a vase, including the flowers. But Cordon refused to budge, so the broom did the budging by dropping onto the floor on its own.

Kate let out a heavy sigh in irritation. Having lived with Cordon for many years, she knows that when it came to chores, Cordon would always try to avoid it. If he can't, then he would outright refuse to do it.

Kate walked towards Cordon, picked up the broom and looked at him squarely in the eye.

"If you want to stay in this house," Kate said to him with a warning, "you'd better sweep this room, pronto."

"Your empty threats mean nothing to me," Cordon replied in a flat tone. "If you want cleaning done, hire a maid."

Kate felt like tearing off the duster feathers in frustration. She had been through this sort of conversation many times; why would she think it would work now?

"Then how about you do it for a Stoutland Snack?" she said in mild desperation as she pulled out the same type of treat that Cordon held out about an hour ago.

"I'm not going to fall for such a pathetic ploy," replied Cordon with a smirk. "Try harder."

"Ugh, I give up." Kate threw the broom down in surrender, a feeling she encountered many times.

"I'd knew you'd come to understanding," said Cordon with a smug, satisfied expression on his face. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to catch up on my sleep." He walked to the nearest armchair, sat on it and quickly fell asleep.

Kate went on to continue dusting the room while grumbling and muttering. She was rather fed up with Cordon's laziness, and she began to think of a way to twitch that Frogadier's legs.

While she was dusting, she came across the living room fireplace. It had a fresh set of logs placed inside in preparation for an unusually chilly day.

And that ignited a little idea in Kate's mind. Her idea may seem a little dangerous and unorthodox, but Kate's not the delicate type that took no risks.

She took out a decent sized log from the fireplace with her left paw, and then took out the stick that was in her tail with her right. The stick ignited as she took it out, and set the log on fire. She then called out to Xis, who was currently wiping the lobby floor with a dry mop.

"Help Xis! I urgently need the mop bucket!" Kate called out in an urgent tone.

It took a few seconds for Xis to come rushing into the living with the bucket filled with water. To his shock, he saw Cordon with a flaming log on his lap!

"Fire!" he yelled as he readied his water bucket in his claws. The yelling startled Cordon awake, but before he could react, he was doused with a bucket full of dirty detergent water.

SPLOOSH!

...

...

* * *

A short while later, Cordon was seen with a broom in his hands, lazily sweeping with it back in forth. He was completely drenched in water.

"I knew you'd come to understanding," Kate folded her arms with a self-satisfied grin.

"Yeesh, if you wanted me to clean, you should've just asked nicely," Cordon grumbled.

* * *

**AN: Phew, I made it within the 1000 word limit. Although more words were probably needed to develop the Kate's plan, I'm not going to violate the limit to do so. I put it there for a reason, after all.**

**Why didn't Cordon realize the burning log immediately? The fire was too small to produce enough heat or smoke for him to notice. Or maybe Cordon's a really heavy sleeper.**


	7. 12:00pm

It was solar noon; the sun was at its peak in the vivid blue sky that was streaked with wispy cirrus clouds. This was the time when the sun was as its most intense; its warm, radioactive rays beamed onto every surface it could shine on.

And that included Cordon; he was lounging on a deck chair with his face shaded underneath the wooden veranda. The veranda was accessible via a glass sliding door from the living room.

A few metres away from Cordon was a ladder (or was it a stepladder?) extending up towards the roof. If you climbed up the roof, you'd find Xis cleaning the gutters with a plastic scooper. Because of the abundance of sunshine, the leaves were dry, so it was easy for him to transfer the leaves into one of the two buckets left on the flat portion of the roof.

"This is hard work," Xis commented as wiped some sweat from his face as a result of the heat and physical exertion.

"Manual labor's your kind of thing," Cordon replied from the comfort of his lounge chair. "Stop your complaining."

"I wonder how Kate's doing in the kitchen," Xis wondered while he sought refuge from the heat by crawling into the very thin shadow created by the chimney smokestack.

* * *

Kate was indeed in the kitchen; she was preparing for the picnic that they were planning to have in the next hour in their backyard. The food she was preparing were some oven baked Poképuffs, sandwiches and some fresh Pecha Berry juice. Everything had made from scratch, and Kate did so in her own signature way; by doing everything at once.

She was mixing the batter with a wooden spoon with her left paw, slicing the sandwich ingredients with a knife with her right, while leaning on the juicer switch with her right elbow. The act of leaning severely restricted the movement of Kate's lower right arm, so she had to cut with the knife by twisting her wrist. It was very awkward to handle, and it took a lot of attempts because she successfully cut a single slice of lettuce.

She then poured the batter into the baking tray that was placed on the kitchen floor through the use of gravity. She had to make sure that each dollop of dough was the same size, but... she managed to do so pretty well. After doing that, she lifted the baking tray up with her left foot and put it in the oven for it to bake. She knew exactly how long and at what temperature the Poképuff dough had to bake for, so all she had to worry now was the frosting. She used her left paw and a little bit of intuition to measure out the ingredients for the frosting.

"Things are going well," Kate said to herself as she turned on the radio in front of her with her nose.

* * *

Meanwhile, Xis had just finished cleaning out the gutters, and he was ready to wash down the downpipe and the gutters. He picked up the second bucket and walked over to where the gutter meets the downspout. When he leaned a little bit further out, he could see Cordon's body and legs exposed in the sunlight.

Xis' bucket was full of clean water (and a little bit of dirty detergent water). Cordon could see Xis and his bucket from where he was sitting, so he gave him a little warning.

"Pour that bucket onto me, and I swear I'll bend your quills until they snap off."

However much of a fun prank that would've sounded, Xis didn't think dumping the bucket onto Cordon would be worth it. So Xis went on to carefully pour the water down the downspout and throughout the entire gutter to finish off the job. After all that toil under the hot sun, he wished that he had a bucket of almost entirely clean water dumped on him right now.

But his job wasn't done just yet; he had to discard the leaves into the backyard compost bin and put away the ladder/stepladder in the tool shed. After doing so, he returned to the veranda and saw Kate standing at the sliding door. The top half of her body was splattered with Pecha Berry pulp.

"Lunch is almost ready you guys!" Kate called out to them. "I just need the scooper to scoop some ice cream. Does anyone know where it is?"

"Nope," Cordon replied with a little shrug.

"Umm... About that..." Xis said with a sheepish grin, "I think you'd better leaf that issue alone."

"And why is that?" Kate questioned him in a suspicious tone.

"You're going to feel guttered if told you," he said as he hid the scooper covered in dirt and debris behind his back.

* * *

**AN: At first, I thought that a Poképuff was based on a macaroon, but a Google search proved otherwise. So I thought of it as a cupcake instead.**


	8. 1:00pm

A grassy field, some pleasantly warm sunshine and a gentle breeze. What more could you ask for a casual picnic in your own backyard?

"Food," Cordon reached out for the picnic basket that was placed in between Kate and Xis. The trio were sitting on a classic picnic blanket with a red and white checkerboard pattern.

"Uh-uh-uh!" Kate said disapprovingly, pushing away the basket further away from Cordon. "You didn't say the magic words."

With a sigh, Cordon said out the magic words in the most monotonous tone possible.

"Abra Kadabra Alakazam. Open Sesame. Squeamish Ossifrage. Please."

"I only needed the last one, sheesh." Kate said as she opened up the basket and took out the picnic food that she had prepared earlier; some pink frosted Poképuffs and some vegetable sandwiches cut diagonally into two triangular halves. She also took out a few polystyrene cups and a thermos flask containing Pecha Berry Juice. Cordon and Xis each took one Poképuff and began to eat it.

"Wow, this is delicious!" Xis expressed his delight as the sweet flavour spread across his entire mouth. "It's so sweet and moist!"

"I knew you'd love it," Kate smiled at Xis as she took a Poképuff for herself. "Sweet things are my favourite as well." She then looked over to Cordon, who was eating his Poképuff slowly and sensibly, as if he was savoring it.

"And I suppose it's your favorite too?" Kate asked Cordon. In reaction to him being seen, Cordon immediately shoved the rest of the Poképuff and swallowed it.

"No, not really." Cordon tried to speak calmly, but it came off as rather panicky.

"Don't try to hide it," Kate said with a smug expression on her face.

"It's not in my nature to like these things," Cordon replied, slowly easing his voice into his usual calm tone. "It's just that this is the only palatable thing to eat."

"Then what about the sandwiches?" Kate pointed to the the sandwiches placed in a row on the picnic blanket.

"Just look at it," Cordon said as he picked one up and spread the ingredients out like pages of a book.

The tomato and cucumber slices were uneven, the lettuce was broken up into a few pieces, the shredded carrot pieces were irregular, and... it smelt funny.

Kate tried to not take offense as best as she could, but considering this criticism came from Cordon, it was pretty easy to ignore it. She just reacted with an eye roll.

"I think it's just fine," Xis said after tearing out a sizable portion of the sandwich, causing a few ingredients to drop onto the picnic blanket. "It tastes exactly what I expected it to be."

"See?" Kate pointed out the evidence against Cordon's case. "It is palatable, Mr. Nitpick!"

"That's because Xis has unrefined taste, unlike me." Cordon placed his hand onto his chest to signify his superiority.

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Xis questioned him a little angrily.

"Look, can we just eat without any more arguing?" Kate decided that enough was enough, and performed a 'stop' gesture by crossing her arms and then pulling them away from each other.

"Okay," Cordon agreed as he reached for another Poképuff. "But for the record, you started it first."

Kate just reacted with a heavy sigh, and took a bite out of her own Poképuff.

* * *

A few minutes of quiet eating went by; the Poképuffs and sandwiches disappeared one by one until all that was left were leftover crumbs. Everyone was sated, satisfied and at full saturation.

"Thanks for preparing such a delicious picnic lunch," Xis exclaimed to Kate as he went to lie on his back, beginning to feel sleepy.

"You're welcome," Kate pushed away the picnic basket in order to make room to lie down as well. Cordon was already lying down just like Xis, so she was the last one to do so. They were all lying in a line, with Kate in the center, with Xis to her right and Cordon to her left.

"I'm just wondering..." Xis said to Kate while he fixed his gaze at the clear afternoon sky. "Why do you work so hard in preparing a lunch like this?"

"Yeah," Cordon agreed with Xis for once, but it probably was the oncoming food coma that affected his mind. "Instead of sandwiches, you can just bust out some potato crisps."

Kate gave a little glare at Cordon before sitting up and replying.

"Well, I made everything from scratch because one, I wanted to challenge myself and two, it's because of my health."

"Your health?" Xis expressed some concern.

"Yeah..." she replied in a soft voice that trailed into nothing. Her face began to droop. Without warning, she began to stand up and headed towards the house without saying anything more.

"Huh? Where are you going?" Xis sat up and followed her into the house. He was very mystified by her sudden mood change. With Kate and Xis gone, Cordon was left lying on the picnic blanket by himself.

"Well, this is awkward," Cordon said while he continued to lay there. He felt a little thirsty, so he lazily reached his hand out for the thermos full of Pecha Berry Juice and tried to take a swig. 'Tried' was the word of emphasis here, because he began to spit out the leaves that were blended in with the juice and pulp.

"I take back what I said about the sandwiches," Cordon said, sticking out his tongue like a Swirlix to show digestive uneasiness. "This is the definition of unpalatable. Bleh."

* * *

**AN: So Kate and Xis (and maybe Cordon) love sweet things, huh? That may provide a clue to their nature. And when I mean nature, I meant the 25 natures listed in-game, ranging from Adamant to Timid. **

**When Kate mentioned about health when it comes to preparing a lunch from scratch, you wouldn't think a frosted Poképuff would be anything but healthy. But Xis was talking about her lunches in general; most of the food she prepares are healthy ones. Look back at the breakfast she prepared at 8:00am, for example.**


	9. 2:00pm

After Kate inexplicably walked off from the picnic, Xis was curious about her mysterious behaviour, so he followed her into the house and into the hallway. He saw Kate walking briskly into her room (which was the second one from the left) and Xis began to run in order to catch up to her. But by the time he reached there, the door was already shut.

"Kate, can I come in?" Xis asked after he knocked on the door a few times. I guess Kate was too upset to ask for the 'magic word', because the door opened up for Xis to enter through.

Kate's room was filled with lots of printed material; her desk had drawers full of letters, the walls were covered in photographs and drawings, and there was a large map was placed in whatever wall space was left. The wall looked very cluttered in contrast to the neat and tidy floor and bedding. Kate was standing at the window; her face was rather serious.

"Kate..." Xis asked her with an anxious look. "Why do you feel upset all of a sudden? Was it something I said earlier at the picnic?"

Kate slowly turned her head towards Xis, and began to reply slowly and quietly.

"I'm not upset," she said without any intention of hiding her feelings. "I'm just thinking."

"Thinking? About what?"

"Life stuff."

"Oh..." Xis couldn't make sense of her vague answer, and Kate could see that in his face. She decided to explain it to him in more detail, but first, she had to make herself comfortable. She walked over to the chair stationed at the writing desk, turned it around so that it was facing Xis' direction, and sat on it. Xis sat where it was convenient for him to hear her clearly, and that was in front of her.

"Your question to me was why I work so hard to prepare lunch, or just meals in general right?" Kate started off with a recap.

"Something like that," replied Xis. "And part of the reason was that it was because of your health."

"That's right," Kate nodded. "I need to make food from scratch because I need the nutrients."

"Nutrients, huh?" Xis said while he thought to himself. "You mean like water and sunlight?"

"That's for plants," Kate said firmly to him. "And if that was meant to be a joke, now isn't the time for that."

"But I wasn't joking..." Xis said in a whisper.

"Anyway," Kate picked up from where she was interrupted. "The fact is that my body is rather frail overall. It also doesn't seem to absorb nutrients well, so to compensate, I have to work hard to cook nutritious food... for the most part, anyway."

"I see..." Xis seemed to understand.

"And that lead me to think of other things," Kate said while she folded her arms. "Like the very short amount of time I have here on this earth."

"Don't say that!" Xis greatly opposed her statement in anger.

"It's true," Kate replied calmly. "This is why I'm always busy rushing here and there filling each day with meaningful things."

Kate turned her head to see the wall filled with photographs. They were of herself, Xis and Cordon, all together in various situations. From forest tramping to eating ice cream on the kerb, Kate treated them these memories like a treasure.

She then looked at the large map; it was a map of the yet to be named region they were currently living in. It was annotated with coloured pens; places they've already travelled were circled in green, and places that she really wanted to travel to were in red. There were many red circles scattered throughout the whole map.

Xis continued to sit on the floor, and he did so very quietly. It looked like Kate's seriousness had rubbed off onto him. Kate didn't want him to feel this way, so she decided to talk about the topic in a brighter perspective.

"Do you know of the phrase '**Magikarp Diem**'?" Kate asked him.

Xis snapped out of his silence and began to answer. "No, I haven't."

"It's an adapted foreign phrase that means 'seize the day'," Kate told him in a knowledgeable manner.

"Is it like 'You Only Live Once?'"

"That is a phrase I never want to hear from anyone, especially in abbreviated form," Kate gave Xis a really serious look.

"Ha ha, okay." Xis replied with a laugh. It didn't take much for him to bounce back, that's for sure.

"**Magikarp Diem...**" Kate recited the phrase to herself as she stood up from her chair, feeling a burst of energy. "This is the phrase that will drive me to make the most out of what I have."

"Yeah!" Xis jumped up onto his feet and shouted with his own burst of energy. "Let's go and do our best!"

Kate just beamed a happy grin at him. It felt good to have a friend who shared her passion to living life to the fullest.

"Now let's go and clean up the picnic, shall we?" Kate suggested as she walked out of her room, expecting Xis to follow. "I know that deadweight Cordon isn't going to clean it up by himself."

"All right," Xis complied as he followed Kate out of the door. But partway, a photograph had caught his attention, so he stopped and pointed at it.

"But first..." he said to Kate, "Can you tell me about this photo?"

"Of course," Kate said in a cheerful tone. "Ask about as many photos as you like."

* * *

**AN: This chapter took relatively more time than the others, probably because of the large change in tone. And please don't think that Kate goes to her room to think about life at 2pm every day. This chapter was an opportunity to develop Kate's character and the central theme of this fanfic (Seize the Day).**


	10. 3:00pm

"That should be all of it," said Kate as she threw polystyrene cups into the rubbish bin, located at the front of the house. She had just finished cleaning up whatever was left from their picnic lunch. She dusted off her hands as a gesture of a job well done, before heading to the backyard to start with some gardening in the backyard.

When Kate got there, Xis met up with her while carrying some gardening tools that he took from their aluminium tool shed. He placed them in a row in front of Kate for her to check out.

The tools were a trowel, a gardening fork, a watering can and bags of flower seeds; they were perfectly suited for planting a new bed of flowers.

"Thanks a lot, Xis," Kate nodded approvingly at him. "Make sure to lock the shed, and then you're done."

"Just that?" Xis replied with a concerned look. "Are you sure you don't need any more of my help, after what you said before?"

"I'll be fine," assured Kate, placing a paw on Xis' back. "I don't need to give you another guarantee, do I?"

"Well..."

"Now off you go," Kate gave Xis a little push in the direction of the tool shed. Xis got the message that she didn't want any more help, so he continued to walk towards the shed.

* * *

The tool shed contained an assortment of gardening tools and objects that were associated with the outdoors. There was no source of lighting apart from the open door, so it was hard for Xis to find what he was looking for, like the key that he put somewhere in order to free up his claws to carry the tools for Kate. He was hoping Cordon didn't take them in order to lock him in as a prank.

He started his search on the left side of the shed; this housed all the tools like a rake, a push mower and a ladder (remember that?). Xis was more of a landscaper than a gardener; he really liked using the power tools like the hammer and the EXCA Drill. There was a chainsaw too, but Kate forbade him to use it until he 'grew up'.

The right side had all the recreational tools, like a soccer ball, a fishing rod and a long stick. Around this time, the trio would usually be playing some outdoor games, and Cordon would usually win. As Cordon came into his thoughts, Xis decided that after he locked up the shed, he would ask him to play a game or something.

With a little bit more searching, Xis found the key on a shelf at the far end of the shed. Xis grabbed the key, slammed the door and locked it, and proceeded to find Cordon.

* * *

Cordon was sitting on the front stairs that lead to the front entrance, facing westward at the afternoon sun. He looked bored out of his mind.

"Cordon!" Xis shouted as he eagerly approached him. "Want to play a game of tag?"

"No," Cordon gave him the straightest reply possible. "But I do have a better game."

"Really?" Xis couldn't contain his excitement. "What is it?"

"It's called 'Fetch'," Cordon said as he kept one eye on the key Xis was holding.

"Aww, but we've already played that game!" Xis expressed his disappointment.

"Well, you're going to play it whether you like it or not."

With an agile swipe of his hand, Cordon took the key out of Xis' claws and mightily threw it over the fence and into the neighbouring property.

"Fetch," Cordon pointed Xis to the direction of where he threw the key.

"Ugh, Cordon..." Xis groaned as he went to fetch the key. He first had to go through the 'flower beds filled with fascinating flora' before jumping up onto the fence and falling head first into the neighbour's front lawn. Fortunately, they were out at the moment.

"That should keep him busy for a while," Cordon said to himself. He decided to see what Kate was doing in order to alleviate his boredom.

So Cordon walked on the stone paved path connecting the two yards. It went along the south side of the house, which was where Cordon and Kate's bedroom were located. The backyard could be accessible from the north side, but there was no path.

As Cordon reached the backyard via the south path, he saw Kate from far off, planting some flower bulbs into an empty patch of dirt. He lost attention to her after a few seconds, and began to look around the backyard for anything to do.

The south end of the backyard had a giant tree with a compost bin underneath, a gate that lead to the forest, and an aluminum tool shed. The north end had the veranda, a small vegetable garden and an undeveloped patch of dirt where Kate was working on. So in other words, there was nothing remotely interesting to do.

"Nothing," Cordon complained in his monotone voice, slouching so much that he nearly collapsed onto the grass. "I guess I'll just... sleep some more."

So Cordon went to the veranda to relax on his lounge chair again. Although the sun that used to shine there was long gone, he couldn't really care less.

* * *

Meanwhile, Xis had already fetched the key and was currently looking for Cordon in the front yard. But he was nowhere to be found.

"Dang," Xis said when he realized that. All he wanted was to seize the day with some play, but all he got was a ploy to run away.

"Guess I'll have to do something else..." Xis said while he thought of some suggestions. A good one apparently came to mind, as Xis headed towards the front door with great enthusiasm.

"Magikarp Diem!" Xis shouted as he ran through the front door and into his room.

* * *

**AN: So much content, so little words! I've managed to cut it very close within the 1000 word limit. It used to be exactly 1000, but after a few tweaks, the final count was 998.**

**If you're confused with the directions, picture the house with a bird's eye view with North as Up. The front yard is to the left of the house, the backyard is to the right of the house, and the connecting path is below the house. The Sun goes from right to left.**

**There are a few connections to the previous chapters if you're sharp. See if you can spot one of them.**


	11. 4:00pm

Stumbling like a drowsy Drowzee, Cordon plodded his way through the hallway to reach his room at the far end. The sheer amount of inactivity he had these past few hours had made him feel even more inactive.

He was barely halfway across the hallway when he heard a sounds coming from the first door to left that lead to Xis' room. It was the sound of clanking metal, and it had piqued Cordon's interest. He wasn't as polite as Kate (if you couldn't tell that already) and walked into his room without knocking.

* * *

Xis' room was fairly ordinary as bedrooms go; it had all the furniture you would expect like a desk, a chest of drawers and a bed of course. They were all made out of the same type of wood, Castanea sativa. There were some drawings on the wall, but they were not as numerous nor at the same quality as Kate's. Xis was at the center of the room, lifting a metallic barbell overhead. When Cordon barged in, he lost his balance that he almost fell over backwards and drop the barbell. Fortunately, as I said 'almost', he never actually fell.

"Hey Cordon!" Xis exclaimed as he gently lowered the barbell onto the ground with a little thump. "That's rare for you to come by here."

"I was just curious on what you were doing, that's all." Cordon justified his visit.

"Oh, I was just exercising with this barbell here," Xis said as he lifted the barbell a little bit above the ground with an overhand grip. The four metal plates clattered and clanked as they bumped into each other. With Cordon's observant eyes, he could see that the combined mass of the plates were 29 kilograms, or about 64 pounds.

"I see," Cordon said with a snarky grin. "Trying to trim some of that fat of yours?" He was making fun of his rather round and rotund build.

"**Do not call me fat,**" Xis scowled while bearing his teeth and fangs. He looked a lot more serious compared to his normally cheerful self.

"Come on Xis, it was only a joke," Cordon tried to lighten the mood. "Don't be so sensitive."

"Okay then," Xis let it slide as he performed a rep of an overhead barbell press before pushing the barbell aside in favour of some push ups. Cordon decided to stick around for a while more, so he sat on a chair that Xis created by himself. It was one of his earliest works, so Cordon was a little uneasy that it could fall apart at any second.

"When I was talking to Kate earlier," Xis talked while he did his push ups, straining his voice each time he reached the top, "It got me thinking about some things."

"What things?" Cordon asked him directly instead of remarking about his intelligence. Xis wasn't exactly a deep thinker, or one to think much at all.

"The future," Xis said as he exhaled while at the bottom of the push-up. "You see that poster on that wall?" He turned his head towards the wall that he wanted Cordon to look at.

In the centre of the wall was a poster of a Chesnaught. It was standing upright and sturdy, with its claws balled in fists and it had a confident grin on its face. The words 'Stay Sharp!' were printed on the bottom of the poster.

"Whenever that time comes," Xis said to Cordon in a serious tone while he resumed his push-ups. "I have to be strong so that I can protect my friends."

"You mean Kate and myself?" Cordon replied back.

"Yeah," Xis said as he performed his last rep before hopping onto his desk chair. "Who else?"

"Hmm," Cordon pondered with a thoughtful look.

"I have to make the best of the time I have now," Xis said while he squeezed his claw tightly together, showing determination. "Like eating well, working out, and keeping a positive attitude."

"A positive attitude, huh..." Cordon replied. "That's something I see from you way too much."

"I know," Xis said with a shrug. "It may be a bit too much for some, but being optimistic is what I want to define myself as."

"But isn't it hard to stay positive all the time?" Being a natural pessimist, Cordon couldn't comprehend how he managed to consistently stay so peppy.

"Well yeah, it is," Xis said as he squeezed a hand grip instead of his claw. "I can be sad, angry, anxious or serious. I'm not a single shade of green."

Cordon took a little time to ponder about what he said. It's like he was seeing a different side of Xis that he hadn't seen before, even when he was living with him for several years. Maybe he was too self-absorbed in his own things to notice it.

"Well, enough of the heavy stuff," Xis said as he jumped off the desk chair. "I want to go and do something else."

"All right," Cordon stood up from his chair. "Let's go and do something that's not as boring as talking to you."

"Hey!" Xis gave Cordon an angry look, but he knew that Cordon meant it as a joke.

Just as Cordon and Xis were about to exit the room, Kate was knocking on the window from outside.

"What are you two doing cooped up inside?" she asked them without expecting a reply. "We're supposed to be going to the stream to enjoy ourselves!"

"Oh boy, the stream!" Xis replied with his usual excited tone. "We'll be there soon, Kate!"

"All right," Kate got the message and headed off. After she left, Xis and Cordon made their way to the backyard gate that lead outside of their property.

* * *

**AN: I'm anticipating that Xis may be perceived as one-dimensional and annoying with his optimistic behaviour. However, his character is deeper than that. Developing that is one of the things I want to work on as the series progresses.**

**Sometime in the future, I want to publish a fanfic that will feature the trio in their final stage. In my terminology, I refer to it as their 'Hyper' form, because saying 'fully evolved' isn't cool enough.**


	12. 5:00pm

Kate, Cordon and Xis were currently walking along a forest path surrounded by evergreen trees, flowers and leafy bushes. They had brought nothing but themselves.

"I can't wait to get to the stream," Xis said cheerfully as he saw the sunlight glinting through the gaps of the trees.

"Me too," Kate agreed as she felt the gentle breeze that had persisted through the entire day. "It's a good way to relax after seizing a day like today."

"It's funny that we haven't given this stream a name," Cordon remarked while he heard the birds chirping to each other. They were the kind of birds that weren't Pokémon.

"It's probably because we don't want to give it some lame name," replied Kate.

"I'm thinking of 'The Twitch'," Xis responded to Cordon by suggesting a name. "What do you guys think?"

But before Kate and Cordon could criticize it, they had arrived at the stream. After a little bit of discussion, the trio decided to take a walk through it, leaving only when it became convenient for them to.

The start of the stream was marked with a large waterfall that flowed from a small rocky cliff that extended for some distance down the stream, before a steep hill would ease it towards the stream level. The trio were standing behind the waterfall due to a naturally formed cavity, while looking through the wall of water drops that distorted the forest in front of them.

"Back when we first discovered this stream," Kate said while feeling rather nostalgic, "I remember we jumped through the waterfall."

"We were coughing and spluttering for some time after that," Cordon tried to recall the event.

"Ah... good times," Xis sighed, feeling rather sentimental.

After standing around for a few seconds to listen to the rumbling and foaming of the waterfall, Kate decided for them to jump through the waterfall for old time's sake. Cordon and Xis agreed, although they knew it wasn't going to feel the same.

"Jump when I say 'Three'," Kate said as the trio readied themselves to jump. "Three!"

A sound of splattering of water against a hard surface could be heard, followed by loud splashing. Kate, Cordon and Xis ended up on the other side of the waterfall standing in the shallow stream, rather unsatisfied.

"That... wasn't as thrilling as I remembered it to be," Kate said in a disappointed tone. Cordon and Xis looked at each other with the same face that read 'It figured.'

"I guess different times lead to different experiences," Kate thought out loud as she waded downstream, expecting Cordon and Xis to follow. "I wonder how it'll feel if we did this at night instead."

The three then began to line up while they walked, with Kate at the front, Cordon in the middle and Xis at the back. You could say that they were... streamlining.

The stream made a gradual bend to the left and a sharp bend to the right like a windy road, before forking into two, leaving a small strip of land in the middle. Kate and Xis continued walking in the water while Cordon walked onto the land.

The island was more of a rock pile than a mass of land; a lot of rocks of varying shapes and sizes had accumulated into one large jumble. It was already there before the stream was created, so the water naturally manoeuvred around it. Cordon made sure to place his feet on the flat, stable rocks while he made his way through, managing to line up with his friends in the same order as the river forks merged together again.

After the fork merge, the stream began to become shallower, but the water flowed much faster. There were some tiny waterfalls, each falling on top of each other like a flight of stairs. The fast current made walking through the stream rather difficult, so they opted to walk on the (mostly) dry rocks at the side of the stream. It was fortunate that none of them made any **slips**, otherwise I would've cracked another lame **stream** pun.

The stream tour came to an end as soon as the stream met up with the forest path. Both the stream and the path would continue to lead to a large lake, but it wasn't their intention to visit there.

"That was a nice river romp, wasn't it?" Kate asked Cordon and Xis to see if they agreed.

"It sure was!" replied Xis. "There were a whole lot of interesting things to see!"

"Like rocks, rocks and more rocks," Cordon snarkily replied to Xis. Xis just kept quiet. After a bit of silence, Kate picked the conversation up with a new topic.

"Well, I'm going to give myself a full rinse," Kate said as she headed back into the stream.

"Me too," Xis said as headed towards the stream as well. When he realized that Cordon wasn't silently following along with them, he said to him, "Aren't you coming too, Cordon?"

"I think I'll just stay here," Cordon replied quietly.

"All right, suit yourself," Xis gave a nod of understanding to Cordon before joining Kate to bathe themselves in the stream. The water itself was crystal clear and pristine; it was due to the rocks lining the entirety of the stream up to this point that prevented any eroded soil from contaminating the water.

From where Cordon stood, he could see Kate splashing some water onto Xis, and Xis splashed back in retaliation. It looked like they were having some childish fun. Cordon however, decided to quietly admire the stones on the stream's bank. They were flat, thin and smooth to the touch, perfect for a certain activity that he would decide to do later.

While the trio preoccupied themselves with their activities, the sun began to hover over the western horizon.

* * *

**AN: For your information, i****n the universe where this fanfic is set, Earth animals live in coexistence with Pokémon. **

**By the way, when Xis mentioned 'The Twitch', it's referring to the Twitch website. It's where they held the famous live stream 'Twitch Plays Pokémon', which I'm sure a good handful of you will know.**


	13. 6:00pm

In a dimensional space where light and darkness were split into two distinct halves, an Umbreon and an Espeon met up at the dividing line to perform an important task.

The Espeon was standing in the Dominion of Light on the right side, while carrying a black and white baton in her mouth. She was talking to the Umbreon, who was standing in the Dominion of Darkness on the left side.

"Brother, it is time for you to fulfill your duty once again," said the Espeon.

"So shall it be," the Umbreon replied, and approached closer to receive the baton. "I will ensure that the transition will go smoothly."

As soon as the transfer was complete, the entire space faded into darkness.

* * *

At the edge of the western horizon, the sun was slowly sinking into the horizon line, illuminating the sky with a brilliant mix of orange, yellow and red. The blue sky that used to dominate the afternoon adopted a faint purple colour.

Watching this spectacle of a sunset from the kitchen window were Kate, Cordon and Xis, who were making preparations for their oncoming dinner time.

For their dinner, they were going to have a vegetable stir fry with sauce. Each of the three were specifically assigned according to their specific speciality; Kate was in charge of handling the heating equipment, Xis was in charge of preparing the raw/uncooked ingredients and Cordon was in charge of preparing liquids.

"Take your time in cutting the vegetables, Xis," Kate said to him while she poured some cooking oil into a large frying pan. "It'll take some time for the stove to heat up."

"All right," Xis said as he carefully sliced the carrots into thin pieces with a knife on a chopping block. He was using a custom knife that was ergonomically designed to fit his claws; many businesses took the time and effort to design products like these to cater to as many species of Pokémon they can.

"Not too thin, all right?" Cordon requested as he was pouring some soy sauce into a measuring cup.

"Cordon, he knows what he's doing," Kate firmly said to him.

"And I know what I'm doing," Cordon said as he poured the soy sauce into a large bowl. "Not listening to you."

Kate just sighed and looked at the frying pan sizzling in front of her. She didn't want to bother pointing out the irony to him.

A few minutes later, Xis had finished cutting all the vegetables for Kate to place them in the frying pan. One by one, while waiting a short time in between, she added the vegetables in order from the longest cooking time to the least.

The frying pan erupted with a column of water vapour, rising upward into the exhaust hood directly above the stove. Kate moved the ingredients around with a wooden spoon to ensure that the veggies were all cooked evenly. Meanwhile, Xis moved on to cutting additional seasoning vegetables and mushrooms (although these were not actually a vegetable).

Cordon was still measuring and pouring the ingredients for his sauce; his sauce contained a lot of ingredients including vinegar and sesame oil. He wanted to add some lemon juice, but to do so he had to prepare it himself. He walked over to the fridge's fruit and vegetable compartment and picked a couple of Nomel Berries (these were common substitutes for lemons), before placing them into the juicer that Kate had used earlier.

As Cordon pressed the juicer's button, the juicer began to quietly hum, like a standing fan. This is in direct contrast with Kate; when she tries to operate the juicer, it would buzz like an angry swarm of Combees, inexplicably splattering juice and pulp in all directions. For Xis, it would operate normally with a loud whirr. That said, each member had a strength, a weakness and a neutral in terms of cooking proficiency.

A sizable amount of juice had accumulated in the small cup, which Cordon proceeded to decant the juice into the bowl full of sauce ingredients. He then used an ordinary stainless steel tablespoon to mix the ingredients together.

After cooking in the frying pan for several minutes, the vegetables began to release their savoury aroma, which proved to smell absolutely delightful to Kate as it wafted towards her nose. She then added the mushrooms Xis had just finished preparing and added a hint of salt, pepper and garlic. It would only be a matter a minutes until the stir fry was done.

"We're nearly finished," Kate said to the two while she was stirring the food in the pan. "Xis, can you take the vegetable scraps to the compost bin in the backyard?"

"Will do," Xis complied as he gathered all the waste in a packaging tray and left the kitchen.

"And Cordon," she said to him as he placed the sauce mixture onto a clean part of the kitchen counter-top. "Can you set up the table?"

"What am I, your personal butler?" Cordon replied with scorn. "I'm just here for the sauce."

Cordon walked to the dining counter-top and sat at his seat. He sat there patiently, waiting for his meal to be served.

"I get the feeling that I'm **your** personal butler," Kate mumbled under her breath while switching off the stove.

"That, I can live with," Cordon said as he stared outside through the kitchen window. The sun had already disappeared, but a layer of orange still lingered over the horizon.

* * *

**AN: Just writing this makes me hungry... Anyway, in order to write this chapter, I had to do some research on the Internet. In fact, I do this all the time while writing; it gives me an opportunity to learn something as well as minimise mistakes. **

**So, about the trio's cooking capabilities (from best to worst):**

**Cooked Food (e.g pies/toast): Kate - Cordon - Xis**

**Uncooked Food (e.g salad/andwiches): Xis - Kate - Cordon**

**Drinks and Desserts (e.g sundaes/smoothies) : Cordon - Xis - Kate **

**After looking at this, I'm surprised Xis didn't have to call the fire department when he toasted his bread this morning. Talk about lucky.**


	14. 7:00pm

"In the Creator's name, we pray, amen." Kate said grace on behalf of the trio before they commenced with their dinner. For those who haven't read the previous chapter, it was stir fried vegetables with sauce. The sauce was yet to be applied to the food, so Cordon did the honours of pouring it as he had prepared it himself.

The bowl of sauce was sitting on the kitchen counter-top. Cordon grabbed the bowl and walked over to the dining counter-top, where he, Kate and Xis were going to eating at.

Cordon tilted the bowl over his plate and poured a reasonable amount of sauce onto it. He then moved the bowl over to Xis' plate and poured a more than generous amount onto that.

"Hey, you're using a little too much sauce!" Xis complained as the sauce began to overflow the plate and dribbled down the sides.

"Eh," Cordon shrugged and moved the bowl over to Kate's plate, and poured whatever was left. It was the same amount as what he poured onto his own plate. He then returned to his seat afterward.

The trio each had a stainless steel fork and spoon to eat their meal with. In their own way, they brought the food to their mouths and began to chew.

"Mmm, this is delectable!" Kate exclaimed with half a mouth full of food. With the exception for formal occasions, she was not a stickler for dining etiquette.

"You said it," Xis said as he tasted the savoury flavour of the vegetables. The sauce was zesty and complemented the meal well by accentuating its flavor.

"It could use more sauce," commented Cordon. The meal was very crunchy overall, but the sauce made it go down easily.

"Well, you could scoop some off of mine," Xis said as he pushed his sauce to one side of the plate with the back of his spoon.

"Nah, keep it," Cordon replied while nodding. "It'll help to keep up your strength; that's why I gave you that much in the first place."

"I suppose..." Considering he was talking to Cordon, he had some suspicion about his true intent. Even Kate gave a similar look, but in the end, they let it go as it really wasn't worth pushing further.

"Anyway," Kate pushed the conversation into a new direction. "We did a great job cooking this stir fry."

"It's all thanks to teamwork," Xis added cheerfully.

"If we push our culinary skills, we could start up a restaurant if we wanted to," said Kate. "Like a corner shop café by the roadside."

"Or a mobile food stall in a bazaar," Xis fantasied in his mind.

"Or a first class restaurant in the city," Cordon joined in.

"But we just don't have the money," said Kate in a disappointed tone, before reverting it by saying "But I don't want to be doing that for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, considering you're always wanting to try new experiences," said Cordon. "I think working a single shift would be ideal."

"I'm sure an opportunity will arise when the time comes," said Xis, effectively ending the conversation. From then, the trio concentrated on their meal without saying another word.

* * *

After several minutes have passed, Xis was the first one to finish up his meal. There were still a lot of sauce on his plate, and he still wasn't satiated, so a second helping was in his best interest. Sadly, there was none, so he was left with a plate full of unused sauce.

He estimated that it would take a few more minutes for Kate and Cordon to finish, so in order to pass the time, he decided to find a way to get rid of the sauce. By doing so, it'll be easier for whoever was washing up.

Beside his plate was an unused napkin, neatly folded in a triangle. He would first use it to wipe a large area around his mouth, as he was quite the messy eater. He then wiped the sauce that overflowed the plate rim, before hovering the napkin over the sauce in the plate. He was about to soak up all the sauce when he saw Cordon looking at him with a 'I hope you aren't doing what I think you're doing' type of glare. In response, Xis began to laugh awkwardly and began to scoop up the sauce with the spoon and placed it into his mouth. Cordon stopped glaring and resumed his meal. Xis continued to eat the sauce on its own, as much as he didn't want to. Sure, the sauce was good and all, but there can be too much of a good thing.

A few minutes later, just as Xis had estimated, Kate and Cordon were done with their meal.

"Well, I'm full on dinner," Cordon said with his hand on his stomach, "but I'm empty on dessert. Who wants some ice cream?"

"I do!" Xis enthusiastically raised up his claw.

"I'll pass," Kate refused with a nod.

"All right," Cordon said as he got off from his bar stool and headed towards the freezer. "Let's open the tub, because I'm too lazy to do anything else."

Cordon opened the freezer door which swung upward like a treasure chest. Inside was a cuboid tub of ice cream that had three flavours; Blue Moon, Red Velvet and Green Tea. He took it out and held it in between the arm and his thigh and walked to various parts of the kitchen to get some utensils. While he was in front of the pantry, he stopped and turned to face Xis.

"You know what will go great with some ice cream?" he asked him.

"No..." Xis answered rather uneasily.

"Chocolate **sauce**," he said with an evil grin as he took it out from the pantry.

* * *

**AN: I'm trying to steer Kate's character away from the sophisticated lady type because I dislike those sort of characters. In one of my fanfics that never took off, Kate was portrayed too politely for my liking, and that caused the whole fanfic to crumble. It was meant to be an introductory fanfic, which 'The Tomb Triad' had succeeded to be.**


	15. 8:00pm

After a course of dinner and dessert, Kate, Cordon and Xis were now facing a kitchen full of dirty equipment and plates. Instead of committing to it as a team, they decided to play their favourite deciding game on the lucky Pokémon that gets to clean up all of it. But just as they were about to play, someone stopped the game.

"I'll do it," Xis volunteered while raising his claw. "But on one condition."

"Go on," prompted Cordon. He was relieved that someone other than him was going to clean up.

"I want you to find that board game that we used to play ages ago," Xis requested.

"Oh, you mean Pokéntrepeneur?" Kate asked with her tongue rather tied. Xis gave her a nod of confirmation.

"I remember that game," Cordon recalled as a little memory popped up in his mind. "We used to play that when we were little."

"I wonder how it'll play out now," wondered Kate. Her curiosity had given her the urge to play it, so she accepted Xis' condition. Cordon showed his acceptance with a silent nod.

"Great!" Xis said a jovial look in his eyes. "Good luck searching for it."

"Thanks," replied Kate, and with a goodbye wave, she and Cordon left the kitchen.

As soon as they left, Xis turned to the daunting mess that was the kitchen. A frying pan, a cutting board, a juicer, as well as several bowls and utensils were waiting and wailing to be cleaned. Xis made his first step by placing the plug into the sink's drain hole and turned the hot water tap.

"Well, this will take a while," Xis sighed while he waited for the hot water to fill the sink. "I'm guessing an hour, tops."

* * *

"If I remember correctly," Kate said to Cordon as they stood in the middle of the hallway, "the board game should be in the attic above us."

On the ceiling of the hallway was a rectangular flap with a handle that needed to be pulled. It was situated 8 feet/2.44m above the floor, but Kate could only reach up to half that height on her tiptoes. However, Cordon made it with a single jump and pulled on the handle to open the flap leading to the attic. A folding ladder was attached to it, which made it accessible for the two to safety make their way up.

The attic was one of those dusty, cluttered types; there were all sorts of old, assorted stuff that were strewn everywhere. There was so much assorted stuff, that it would take a long time describing them all in detail, not to mention it might rip open all sorts of plot conflicts involving the trio's past.

"Remind me to give this place a thorough cleaning tomorrow," Kate said as she coughed a little from all the dust that scattered as she walked around.

"So long as you leave me out of it," Cordon replied as he went to open the attic's only window. It was facing south, so Cordon could see the path he took when he walked from the front yard to the back yard, as well as another path further away that lead deeper into a forest. The night sky was partly cloudy, with the stars sparkling like little gems.

Kate began her search for the board game by checking around a foam mattress. The mattress was still in serviceable condition; if anyone were to come over for a night's stay, they could very well use it. And if the stayer wanted a separate room for itself, the attic could function as one, provided that it was cleaned up of course. There was no board game to be found around that mattress, so Kate moved on.

At the side of the attic opposite of the window were some previous era stuff like a typewriter and a Walkman. They were all stuffed in a box among several others, but those were not the thing that she was looking for. However, it made her wonder about how much technology has developed in the past decade or so; in the present time, everyone was talking about the advent of smart phones. They currently didn't have any such technology, nor even a television or computer in their home, but she'll expect to use one later in her life.

With so much stuff to search through, it took Kate nearly an hour to find the board game, no thanks to Cordon, who spent all his time staring out the window. It was in a box full of memorabilia, which included a picture of the trio when they were young. Without giving too much away, they were all smiling while sitting on the front porch of what looked to belong to their house. They have lived in this house for many years.

So yeah, Kate found the board game and she brushed off the layer of dust that had accumulated on top of it. The title 'Pokéntrepeneur' was printed on the cover, with the words and colours rather faded from aging.

"Found it," she said to Cordon as she walked by him while holding the board game. "I'll tell Xis that I found it all by myself."

Cordon didn't respond, so she proceeded to exit the attic using the ladder. When she got to the bottom, she called out to Cordon, "Well, are you coming, Slowpoke?"

"Later," Cordon said as he eyes were still fixated at the landscape outside.

"Well, make sure to shut the attic door when you're done staring at nothing."

"Fine," he replied, and Kate made her way towards the kitchen.

With Kate gone, Cordon continued to look outside at the night sky. He was captivated by the night's tranquil atmosphere, and he yearned for the opportunity to explore its vast unknown.

And that time will come soon enough.

* * *

**AN: Just how do you pronounce Pokéntrepreneur, anyway? PO-KON-TRAY-PREN-NURE? PO-KENT-TRAY-PREN-NURE? PO-KEY-ENT-TRAY-PREN-URE? (Ack, my tongue hurts.) **


	16. 9:00pm

"My turn!" Xis exclaimed as he picked up a couple of six-sided dice and threw them onto a table.

"Seven," he said and moved a tiny metal bicycle across some rectangular spaces of a board game. He landed on a space that read 'Fall City Waterworks.'

"I own that," said Kate, holding up a small card as proof of ownership. "You owe me 70,000 Poké."

"That's not too bad," he said as he gave Kate some coloured bills, and she stacked them on top of her other bills. It was now Cordon's turn, so Xis threw the dice for him, because Cordon was able to manipulate the dice throw in his favour.

If you're unsure of what's going on, the trio were currently playing a game called 'Pokéntrepreneur' in their living room. Explaining the gameplay is easier than pronouncing the name, because this was an edition of Monopoly adapted for Pokémon. In short, players go around a looping board and buy property to deplete the other player's money by rent.

Cordon's roll showed a twelve, so he moved his Lift Key piece onto a space that read 'Cycling Road'.

"I'm not buying it," he nodded side to side as he shrewdly looked over his thick wad of paper money.

"Gosh, you sure are picky with your properties," Kate remarked. "You've only bought one, and it's not even the most expensive one."

"I don't want to waste my money willy-nilly like you are," Cordon pointed to her property cards full of different coloured property types.

"Hmph," Kate pouted as she threw her dice onto the game board. She moved her Helix Fossil piece to the Free Parking space, symbolised with a bicycle stand.

"Yes!" she excitedly shouted as she claimed some money from the middle of the game board.

"What? I thought Free Parking didn't do anything." Xis curiously inquired.

"It does for us," replied Kate, fanning herself with her newly acquired bills. "Whoever lands on Free Parking gets all the jail fines and taxes. It's a house rule."

"I thought we had a house rule where any player that's a Frogadier gets free access to the bank's funds," said Cordon.

"I hope you're sarcastic about that one," Kate replied while she saw Xis roll a five. His piece moved onto the 'Go to Jail' space, before continuing on to a space which had a Blue Treasure Box on it.

"Community Chest," said Xis as he took a paper slip from the pile. He read out, "You have been savagely mutilated by a horde of MegaGarchomps. Pay half of your current cash on hand... WHAT?"

Xis' expression was of utter shock, much to Cordon's amusement. He remembered that Xis had the exact same expression when he drew that particular card when he was younger. His eyes and mouth were gaping open, and his quills were standing up on end.

"Too bad, Xis," Cordon gave his condolences. "But that's how the game goes."

"It would be a lot more fair if we used the actual cards," Xis sighed as he placed the money in the bank. The actual cards were replaced by custom made paper slips designed by the trio when they were younger. Back in those days, Cordon loved to create cards featuring events of mistfortune that may or may not involve a vicious horde of MegaPokémon.

Afterwards, Cordon's turn allowed his piece to pass GO, allowing him to collect his 200,000 Poké salary.

"Sweet, sweet moolah," Cordon said with happiness in his eyes as he added the bills to his large collection. In truth, most of his bills were made up of small denominations like 1000 and 5000 (compare that with his 200,000 Poké salary).

Kate rolled a four on her turn, and she landed on a red property space named 'Sky Pillar'.

"I own that!" Xis showed his full set of red property cards, with the other two named 'Mt Chimney' and 'Mossdeep Space Center'. Each coloured set of property cards featured a different region. Kate handed Xis 40,000 Poké as payment for the rent.

For his turn, Xis threw the dice so hard that it rolled over the table edge. When Cordon looked at the dice total, he had a sinister grin on his face.

"What's with that face?" Xis questioned while feeling uneasy.

"Allow me to move your piece," Cordon said as he moved Xis' bicycle piece onto a property space named the 'Tower of Mastery'. It happened to be the only property that Cordon owned, AND it belonged to an indigo property set, AND it had a hotel on it. So Xis owed Cordon a grand total of 1,500,000 Poké.

"I... I lose," Xis slumped in surrender and gave Cordon everything he owned to him. He couldn't pay even half of what he owed.

"Tough luck, Xis," Cordon grinned at him. "But as I said, that's how the game goes."

Now Kate and Cordon were the only players left in the game. Kate rolled the dice for Cordon which landed him on a Chance Space. Cordon took a paper slip from the pile and read it silently. His hands started to shake uncontrollably afterwards.

"What's the matter, Cordon?" Kate asked him in curiosity.

"Advance to Luminose Tower, the most expensive property on the board," he read out nervously. "If a player other than you owns it, you must pay that player EVERYTHING you own, plus one."

"Well, GG then," Kate said as she flashed her Luminose Tower property card for Cordon to see. "Check and mate."

* * *

**AN: This was surprisingly the fastest chapter that I've ever written, even when I had to take a good look at the Monopoly board for research purposes. I was rather pressured by the word limit, so the pacing in the second half might be a bit fast.**


	17. 10:00pm

"Man, I'm sleepy," Xis yawned while stretching his arms as he stood by Kate in the living room. She was placing a board game set on a nearby shelf in case if they wanted to play it again.

"Me too," Kate said as she caught his contagious yawn. "It's time for some sleep." She then made her way towards the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"Wait, we forgot to check the windows and the doors," Xis tugged at her arm.

"Oh yeah, like we do every night," Kate sighed. She preferred to go straight to brushing her teeth rather than tag along with Xis. She couldn't understand why he needed her to do it with him.

"Let's go then..." she groaned while rubbing her eyes and the two walked towards the lobby where the front door was located. But Cordon, who was seated in a slightly singed armchair, stopped them with his hand outstretched.

"Wait, I'll do it." he said as he gently lowered his hand back onto the armrest.

"Really?" Xis asked him for confirmation.

"Really..." Kate said in a suspicious tone.

"Don't act like that," Cordon replied. "I'm really going to do it."

"All right," Kate trusted him with a nod. She was more intent on heading off to prepare for sleep and she didn't want this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pass her by. It was extremely rare for Cordon to volunteer, let alone perform any form of work when asked.

"Thanks, Cordon!" Xis thanked him. "Have a good night!"

"You too," Cordon replied as Xis held Kate's paw to take her to the bathroom. She looked rather exhausted, which was understandable after pouring so much energy into every one of her 16 hours awake.

As soon as Xis and Kate left, Cordon stood up from his armchair and walked to the front door, where Kate and Xis initially intended to go.

* * *

The foyer was brightly lit with a ceiling lamp, which all the rooms of the house were fitted with. The floor was relatively clean, having been cleaned earlier in the day, but now it had a few bits of dirt here and there. The front door was already locked, but it wasn't bolted from top and bottom, and Cordon did that easily. With that done and out of the way, he walked into the hallway.

The hallway connected to all the rooms in the house except the kitchen; that was conjoined with the living room. When Cordon looked down the hallway, he could see light coming from the bathroom on the right hand side. The sound of brushing could be heard, which meant Kate and Xis were still brushing their teeth. That was reasonable, since it was like about 20 seconds since they all left the living room. Cordon made a sigh and made his way to the kitchen.

The kitchen was rather clean and tidy; Xis had done a good job cleaning all the equipment and the surfaces. The kitchen's window was one of those types that you had to twist the handle in order to open them, and there were extra latches to secure the window more tightly. All Cordon needed to do was to latch it up like he did to the front door and he was done. The whole thing, including travel time, took no more than 20 seconds.

The living room was at least a little bit more difficult. There was a window and a sliding door that required latching, but the curtains were in the way. Despite this, it still took Cordon 20 seconds to do everything, and then he was done. He didn't need to secure any other window, not even the one up in the attic, because it reliably locked itself. The trio did have a few encounters with night lurkers in the past, and that was the window which was the most targeted, so they took their precautions.

The entire security process had taken only one minute, much to the disappointment of Cordon. He couldn't fathom why it took Xis much longer than that; but then he realised that it may have been those crazy safety precautions that Xis performs every night. Cordon was too lazy to see what he actually did, so he considered asking Kate about it. But he was too lazy to do that too.

Cordon returned to the armchair and looked anxiously at the living room wall clock. It was 10:15pm; a long way away from the time he wanted it to be. You see, the real intention of Cordon's volunteer work was to kill some time; he knew that by routine, Xis and Kate were fully asleep by 11:00pm. At that time, he could do what he liked until tomorrow morning. But all he could do now was to sit there idly and stare at the seconds slowly ticking off one by one. 2700, 2699, 2698... For Cordon, it was the epitome of utter agony.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kate and Xis were still brushing their teeth... that's boring, so let's fast forward to the bit where they prepare themselves for sleep. Kate would sit at her desk to write in her diary all the things that she had done today, and it would be usually be a lot. Xis' method of winding down was similar to Kate's, but it involved drawing pictures with his crayons, usually relating to what happened today and definitely involving his fully grown form. At 10:45pm sharp, they would lie down in their beds full of hay, cover themselves with their blankets and let their minds wander until they would be whisked away to explore their subconscious fantasy.

However, Cordon wanted the exact opposite; he desired to explore a world where everything was real to his senses.

And all he needed to do was to keep waiting.

* * *

**AN: I could've added more detail about Kate and Xis' pre-bedtime rituals, but Cordon's part took up more words than expected. Oh well, since I couldn't think of anything else to build upon it anyway.**


	18. 11:00pm

11pm was a quiet time for the Kate, Xis and Cordon; Kate and Xis were fast asleep in their beds, and Cordon was sleeping on an armchair in the living room. He had fallen asleep out of sheer boredom after waiting for his friends to fall asleep. He awoke a few minutes after the hour, and he walked towards his room, switching off the lights as he went past the switches.

* * *

Cordon's room was a mess; there were all sorts of inedible junk strewn around that he never bothered to throw away. Whether it was in, on or beside, every single piece of furniture in the room had garbage there. Since Cordon's room was off limits to even his friends, no one would be able to clean up the mess, and it was only going to get dirtier and dirtier from there.

When Cordon entered his room, he took a glance at his hammock where he slept in the morning. The bedding fabric was suspended by two wooden beams attached to a frame underneath. But Cordon wasn't intent on sleeping, because he had been doing that throughout the whole day. No, he wanted to go outside and explore, and he was serious about that. He could do so by the room's window that faced towards the west, where the frontyard was located. However, it was as easy to get inside as to get outside with the room's unsecured window, so for security reasons, Cordon decided to take another route. But what other route could he take?

Cordon walked to a corner of the room on the opposite side of the window, where a cardboard box was sitting by itself. Unsurprisingly, it was filled with garbage. Cordon silently moved the cardboard box to reveal a secret entrance to somewhere underground. It could be accessed by removing the loose wooden floorboards, which Cordon took off and replaced as he made his way through.

* * *

From under the elevated veranda in the backyard, a large rock was moved from the underside as Cordon pushed on it. It was shoved aside with a little bit of effort, and then Cordon crawled out from under the veranda. He was now outside.

"I'm free," Cordon said in his usual direct tone, but with a hint of relief. He could clearly see the night sky in front of him; it was coloured a deep indigo with numerous white and yellow stars twinkling in the sky's vastness. Their luminescence was so bright that Cordon didn't need a flashlight to walk around. To him, this was one of the most beautiful things that he'd ever seen in his entire life.

He continued to stare at the sky while he casually walked alongside the northern boundary fence and towards the frontyard. On his way, he passed by a set of slanted double doors that would lead to the basement.

Cordon walked the entirety of the frontyard until he met the road. The road was paved with asphalt and was wide enough to fit traffic going northwards or southwards. There were other neighbouring properties to the west and north of the one the trio was living in, but never the south, as that land was taken up by a nature preserve.

"All right, time for a run," Cordon said as he faced to the north and readied himself to run. He ran at a blisteringly fast pace with his head tilted forward and his arms extended behind him. He darted over to the nearest intersecting road with a 90 degree turn, and zigzagged through the deserted roads.

He then approached a T-junction, and that would leave him with two options; left or right. But Cordon decided to take a third option.

At the intersection was a property that had high brick walls surrounding it with barbed wire laced on top. Such an obstacle was unimpeding for Cordon, for he cleared well over it with an impressive somersult flip. Without losing any momentum, he ran towards the wall of the house and began to silently wall jump between that and the brick wall, gaining altitude with each successive leap. He then leapt onto the top of an overarching streetlamp before taking a u-turn and landed with two feet and one hand on the rooftop.

"Hmm, that felt pretty good," he remarked to himself as he stood up and walked along the rooftop. His pittering and pattering of steps were barely audible, but it could be heard from indoors because of the quietness of nighttime. But regardless of whether the residents could hear him, he didn't care if he was regarded as trespassing because no one would bother to force him to leave... unless they were Flying types, in which Cordon would have to uphold their request.

He then sat himself on the edge of a chimney, which was the highest point of the house. The house itself was the taller in comparison to all the other houses, so he had a good view of his surroundings. He saw many suburban houses like his own as far as he could see. Some of these house had lit rooms, and in one particular house, he saw the silhouette of a Kangaskhan reading a bed time story to her child. Why a child would have a bedtime this late, in his opinion, was none of his business.

Cordon spent a few minutes admiring the scene above and below, when a breeze began to blow through the area. It was chilly yet refreshing, and it served a reminder to him that he should keep moving. And with that, Cordon leapt off towards the west, leaping on one rooftop after another.

As Kate and Xis had seized their day, now Cordon must go and seize the night.

* * *

**AN: Now that Cordon's only here, the fanfic becomes more descriptive and serious in tone. The tone is like that to (mostly) reflect Cordon's personality. **


	19. 12:00am

It was midnight; to the literal minded, it marked the middle of the night, but for Cordon, it marked only just the beginning. The night sky darkened from an deep dark indigo to pitch black, making the stars stand out even more in the sky.

After an hour of physical exercise consisting of running and jumping (it was actually more exciting than I worded it), Cordon stopped to halt in front of two pairs of rails. These rails extended far into both directions in a straight line.

Cordon had reached the end of the surburban part of the yet to be named region. The region was split up into four identical square quadrants, divided by an imaginary vertical and horizontal line. The suburban region was located in the SE quadrant, and Cordon was located at the border between the SE and SW quadrants.

The rails were laid directly on the dividing line between the quadrants. In order to signify the divide better, they were placed on a distinctively coloured gravel surface. That made it easier for residents and tourists to navigate the region. And to appease your ravenous mind for detail, the gravel colour was blue.

So you may be thinking, 'What are these rails for?' Well, we're going to find out in the next paragraph, so finish reading this sentence.

Coming from Cordon's left side was a steam tram that was travelling along the rails at a slow speed. It was slowly approaching a nearby station that was just a raised platform with a wooden bench. The bench was very old and dilapidated; it was broken in two in the middle and the metal was completely covered in rust.

As the tram was approching the station, Cordon took a glimpse at the vehicle's exterior. It showed definite evidence of aging; the body was covered in rust just like the bench and it had large cracks and chips on it. He also observed that the tram would often wobble on the track, giving the sensation that it was about to derail at any time. Anyone but Cordon would be surprised that it was still functioning and it wasn't sent to the scrap heap.

When the tram's entrance aligned with the station, Cordon boarded it and headed towards the back. He was the only one in that tram; there were no engineers or other passengers inside. It felt very lonely indeed.

At the back of the tram was a small area where Cordon could stand, and it had railings that he could lean on too. As he did so, the tram began to creak and moved without warning. Luckily, the railings were sturdy enough to stop Cordon from falling off the tram. And even if he did, he could've just jumped back onto it.

As the tram slowly chugged along its straight path, it generated a continuous stream of white smoke that flowed southwards, and Cordon could see the trail overhead. The ride overall was smooth and reasonably quiet, despite the age of the tram.

So you may be also be wondering, 'Why did Cordon choose to ride the tram?' Well you see, Cordon and the tram have something in common... and no, I'm not talking about age; it's their slow, laid back nature is what I'm talking about. Sure, Cordon was fast on his feet, but that was just a superficial part of him. He liked to take things easy and lounge around, and the tram was a great place to think about various things without being disrupted.

Cordon had been riding this tram at around this time for as long as he can remember. Way back then, he remembered that the tram used to be populated, even at night. There were all sorts of people there, but it mainly construction workers that boarded that tram. Their destination was always the same; it was the region's central city that was named Origin City, where they would fetch some equipment and supplies in the day or went to relax at night. And it just so happened that their construction project was an underground freeway that was located directly underneath the tram tracks, which lead to the obsolescence of the tram. It was now just for show; although showing such a run-down train doesn't give an exactly good impression for the tourists.

Oops, I think we're getting a bit off track here (get it?), so let's get back in operation. To answer the question, Cordon enjoyed the tram because it was relaxing.

It was also scenic too, as he saw the grassy banks being slightly flattened by the night breeze. There were lots of forest trees beyond the banks, with some moving faster than others due to parallax.

As the tram travelled for nearly an hour, Cordon spent the majority of it enjoying the sights and thinking to himself. He was aware that he had a night to seize, but that time will come when he will reach his next destination.

Next stop, Origin City.

* * *

**AN: You probably might have noticed that I never gave out the actual name of the region; that's because I want to reveal it later. But it's nothing really that special; it's just meaningful and geeky at the same time. This chapter gives a little hint on the theme of the region. **


	20. 1:00am

Origin City was a bustling metropolis much like any other on Earth; it had high rise buildings, bright lighting and a large, grandiose building to define its identity. This building had the highly original name of Origin Tower, aptly located at the center of the city. The highest floor was where the Pokémon of largest political power would oversee the entire city.

Cordon was walking nonchalantly along the footpaths, passing by a lot of nocturnal sightseers who were intent on making the most of the night just like him. The foot and vehicle traffic was dense; every time a traffic light changed, a whole mass of cars and pedestrians would fill the roads in a flash flood of movement. The sounds of crowd chatter and vehicles gave the city a sense of busyness and livelihood.

Cordon came to one of the many 4 way intersections and waited for the pedestrian crossing light to turn green. He was heading towards a certain place that he had in mind, and he knew the route that he had to take. In a city so large and populated, it was very easy to get lost while looking for somewhere. But not for Cordon however; he had impeccable navigational skills to help him to reach anywhere he needed to go, with the right transportation of course.

The crossing light turned green, and he, among many other pedestrians, made their way through the intersection. Cordon's destination was just a few more streets away, and he looked forward to reaching it.

* * *

The Boulevard was an avenue filled with exciting and flashy venues like fine dining restaurants, clubs and casinos. The entire avenue was crowded with Pokémon enjoying the nightlife, with street performers and vendors making their fortunes from the ever demanding crowd. There were lots of gaudy neon signs of various colours attached to every building in the avenue. To Cordon, it was the perfect place... for a shortcut to his destination, which was a mall with a basement arcade located somewhere off the main streets.

The arcade was quiet and deserted; just the way Cordon liked it, because he couldn't really stand the noisy crowd. Had there been barely a soul at The Boulevard, he wouldn't mind spending his time there.

The arcade had many machines scattered across the premises; most of them were imported from a far away land, so only some types of Pokémon were able to fully enjoy them. There were machines with joysticks, steering wheels, dance pads, coloured buttons, and many more. For guys like Cordon, it was a haven for those who loved to challenge their spatial and motor skills.

To start off, Cordon approached a claw machine filled with stuffed toy prizes. He reached into his white bubble scarf to retrieve a coin, and slipped it into the slot. He directed the claw using the directional buttons, and lowered it with the 'grab' button. He succeeded with the claw grabbing its victim with a tight Vicegrip, carrying it towards the corner where it would be dispensed into the prize chute. Cordon went to grab his prize, but he had a look of disappointment on his face.

"Dang, I only got one," he expressed his failure, before throwing it back up through the chute and into the playing area. He wasn't in it for the prizes, but for the gruelling challenge of picking up as many soft toys he could in one clawful.

Cordon was about to try again before a gang of Scraggies and their leader entered the arcade. After mugging some poor payphone coin return slots, they decided to have some fun. They were clustered around an air hockey table, arguing about who gets to play against their leader. The argument began to get louder and louder to the point where it was breaking Cordon's concentration.

"I want to challenge the boss!" a Scraggy shouted as loud as he could.

"You already did it last time!" another Scraggy roared at him.

It was like an argument in a preschool playground, and Cordon had enough of it. He approached the gang of Scraggies with a glare to keep them quiet, before staring at their leader across the table.

"I'll be the challenger," Cordon said to the Scrafty leader in his most serious tone. The Scraggies put up no resistance against it.

"Challenge accepted," the Scrafty replied while chewing a piece of gum. "We've only got 250 words left, so one point's all we need."

The Scrafty hustled the coin in the slot like a hustler, and a puck ejected out from the middle. There, a glass barricade marked the boundary.

"Winner stays, loser goes," the Scrafty grinned at Cordon, before taking the initiative with a smash from his paddle. Cordon deflected the puck, and returned it back with great speed. Scrafty slowed it to a halt, before making a powerful banked shot. Cordon quickly reacted with a zig-zagging shot, and Scrafty skillfully blocked it. Scraggy played a counteractive defensive game, while Cordon was a speedy tactician.

The puck bounced quickly back and forth between the two sides. The Scraggies looked as if they were violently nodding. Cordon tried a fake out with his paddle, but Scrafty blockaded it with ease. Scrafty attempted to curve the puck but Cordon swiftly returned it back to sender.

"You're pretty good, frog boy," the Scrafty bantered with Cordon while they played.

"Same to you, bag shorts," Cordon replied with a smirk.

The rally continued on for several minutes. Scrafty was rather flustered, but Cordon remained calm. Cordon took it slow, before accelerating the puck at breakneck speed. This caught Scrafty off guard, causing a weak return. This was the moment of opportunity Cordon was waiting for.

Scraggy was sweating. Cordon looked confident. Everything was going in slow motion, and Cordon lined up his paddle for the ultimate shot.

"Game over," Cordon declared, and he launched the puck straight into Scrafty's goal.

* * *

**AN: I'm amazed that I packed the entire game into about 250 words. I purposely used short, fragmented sentences to maximise the impact while minimising the words.**

**By the way, if you've ever played in an arcade, what's your favourite arcade game? Mine is Pop'n Music, which is a Japanese rhythm game where you press nine coloured buttons in time to the music. **


	21. 2:00am

In the southwestern outskirts of Origin City, Cordon was seen walking along a footpath while flipping a coin. He looked pretty satisfied after spending a good hour at one of his favourite places. Before he could go back home, he needed to fulfil a personal errand first.

The district he was in was shady and derelict; all the street lamps had burnt out and the buildings were abandoned and boarded up. Anything that Cordon saw on the streets were either vandalized or neglected. It was so unsettlingly quiet that you'd probably expect an ambush from around every corner. Although Cordon looked complacent and carefree, he was actually on the alert for any threat around him. His body was sensitive to vibrations, and he used that to tell if anything or anyone suspicious was nearby.

Cordon was walking past some tall buildings that had empty space in between; in other words, there were dark alleyways. You can't describe a seedy area without some dark alleyways. So far, none of the alleyways had anything suspicious.

It was only until the last alleyway that Cordon knew that something was there. He didn't even need to sense for any vibrations, because he could see it with his very own eyes. It was a Crawdaunt; he was casually leaning on a wall, dressed up like a gangster.

"What up frog, you want some of mah warez?" the Crawdaunt spoke in a gangster accent.

"Yeah," Cordon replied in interest. "Whatcha got?"

The Crawdaunt held out an opaque white bottle in his left pincer, and shook it like a salt shaker. From the sound it made, it was certain that there was some kind of powder in it.

"You in?" the Crawdaunt asked if Cordon was interested.

"Heck yeah," Cordon nodded in agreement and proceeded to take out a large wad of bills from his white bubble scarf.

"Woah, not so fast," the Crawdaunt panicked, looking around suspiciously for anyone watching them. "We gotta keep a low profile. Come to mah hideout so we can do bidnizz."

The Crawdaunt gestured for Cordon to follow with his right pincer, and they went out of the alleyway and into the closest building. It was old, dingy and located right next to the roadside.

* * *

The room was completely dark; not even what little light that came from outside could illuminate a tiny sliver of the room. Cordon couldn't see the Crawdaunt anywhere. He stayed by the door, keeping alert on what was happening. He could feel the thud of footsteps nearby. He heard the **clinking** of metal, and then a **click**, much like the sound of a **cocked gun**, and then, out of nowhere...

BANG!

...

...

...

Cordon found himself clutching onto a suspended fluorescent lamp with strings attached to the ceiling, absolutely shivering and shaken from surprise. A shower of sparks was falling from another nearby fluorescent lamp, where one of the tubes had **blown out**. From the ground below him, he heard a fit of laughter from the Crawdaunt. He was wearing a white coat and a tie instead of his gangster getup.

"Scared, aren't you?" the Crawdaunt said in a normal tone, clutching his sides.

"I wasn't scared..." Cordon replied as he jumped off the lamp. "I was terrified!"

"Haha, I know you really hate surprises," the Crawdaunt continued to talk. "I never expected for the light to blow up when I flipped the light switch." The light switch he flipped made a sound similar to a **gun cock** (I hope you're putting the pieces together.)

"I think it's time to buy a new one." Cordon suggested to him.

"If only I had the money," the Crawdaunt slouched on the counter and placed an elbow on the counter, resting his face on a pincer. He suddenly stood up and said, "Oh, before I forget, let me ring you up on that thing you wanted."

Using a set of metal keys that **clinked** as he jangled them, the Crawdaunt unlocked a door leading to another room, and disappeared for a short while. Cordon took the time to take a good look around the now lit room.

It was a pharmacy; there were shelves upon shelves of medicines that were well past their expiry dates, and there were pamphlets educating about diseases there were already eradicated a long time ago. The glass counter had a cash register on it, which had cracked glass underneath.

The Crawdaunt came back from the room next door while holding a bottle similar to what he was offering at the alleyway and placed it on the counter.

"That'll be 2,000 Poké, Cordon," the Crawdaunt adressed him by his proper name, as if he knew him.

"Here Nate," Cordon addressed him back and gave the stack of bills he offered earlier. Nate inspected the bills and had a weird look on his face.

"Hey, this is Pokéntrepreneur money!" Nate shouted as he laid down the coloured paper bills on the counter in realisation.

"Ha, fooled ya," Cordon impishly grinned while he handed over the real money.

"Cordon, you prankster! You got me there!" Nate laughed as he placed the money into his pocket, since it was outside operating hours. Cordon placed his purchase in his bubble scarf.

"Oh, by the way," Nate said to Cordon, "how was my gangster act? I knew you'd be around at this hour, so I decided to spice it up a bit."

"Hmm, needs a bit of work," Cordon thought about it. "It was way too stereotypical and felt forced."

"Yeah, I know. I've been watching too many gangster movies."

"Well, I can help if you need it," Cordon offered some help.

"Really?" Nate exclaimed with excitement. "Well teach me, master!"

The two went over to the next room over to talk for a long time. From the way they were conversing with each other, they acted as if they were very good friends.

* * *

**AN: The purpose of this chapter was to give more character depth to Cordon; so far, we more or less know of him as a sarcastic, lazy jerk. I wanted to add more, but I struck the word limit. Oh well, maybe next time.**

**Because I had to stop the chapter here, there were two mysteries that were yet to be solved; why was Cordon so frightened by the blown fluorescent tube? And what was in the bottle that Cordon bought from Nate?**

**Well, for the former, the AN for 1:00pm will give you a very vague hint. The second, you can speculate on that. I wonder if I have to bump the age rating up because I talked about the white powder.**


	22. 3:00am

Back at the house, Kate and Xis were soundly asleep in their bed of hay in their rooms. Their sleep was peaceful and quiet; they never tossed nor turned, and their breathing was uninterrupted and steady.

That came to an end for Xis as he heard something coming from under the floor. It was a sound similar to a collapsing tower of blocks. Xis immediately opened his eyes and turned over to the source of the sound. It came from the part of the basement that was located directly under the house. He could not hear anything more after that.

At a time like this, it was easy to ignore it and just go back to sleep. But not for Xis; he was paranoid that the sound hinted at something dangerous... like a burger breaking... I mean a burglar break-in! With such a potentially threatening scenario looming in his mind, Xis wasn't going back to sleep unless he did some investigating.

So Xis made his way to the basement by the entrance outside of the house along the northern side. He considered bringing Kate along at one point, but he decided against it for two reasons. One, he didn't want to interrupt her sleep and two, it might potentially endanger her. Although Kate can be quite a plucky fighter, Xis did not want to take any chances with whatever threat he might have to face.

After opening two slanted wooden doors and walking down a flight of concrete stairs, Xis was now in the underground basement. It had the darkness and ambiance of a dungeon, and it very unsettling indeed. But Xis wasn't (too) scared; he just needed to flick the switch, and everything would come to light... except for the fact that it wasn't working. Fortunately, there was a flashlight hanging on a rack near the stairs, so Xis turned it on and slowly scanned the basement with the beam of light.

The basement interior was very large; it was as large as the house itself. The walls were built with concrete and bricks, with the top half made out the former and the bottom half the latter. Sturdy metal columns were placed in order for support, and pipes ran along the walls for water to flow to and from the house.

Xis didn't find anything suspicious, so he decided to check out the northeastern area where the sound of falling blocks was heard from. There, Xis saw a whole bunch of futuristic looking crates stacked there, with all of them named with a cryptic code. Each of them had a hazard sticker that read 'Explosive'. Hmm... interesting.

An intruder could come in any size or form, so Xis examined the crates carefully. There was a stack of three crates arranged like a mini pyramid, but the top one was misaligned. It seemed suspicious, so Xis went to check that first.

Suddenly, another sound came from the far end of the basement. It was the same kind of sound that he initially heard, but it was much louder. In response, Xis immediately turned in the direction of the sound and walked towards it to investigate. His expression was serious and wary, as now wasn't the time for any playful antics.

The southern side of the basement was stacked with boxes, but these were survival kits and dry food rations. There was also a radio with a digital clock that displayed the correct time of 3:40am. Given that Xis woke up at 3:30am, it goes to show that not every chapter starts at the beginning of the hour.

Xis discovered that a stack of boxes had fallen onto the floor. They used to be leaning against the wall. Since the bottom of the boxes weren't perfectly flat, it was quite plausible that they may have fallen by themselves. But it gave Xis even more suspicion that someone was there.

"Come on, show yourself!" he turned around and shouted into the darkness, but there wasn't a single reply that answered him back. Xis figured that he will have to search for the intruder himself, so he did while holding a flashlight in his left claw and a balled up fist in the other.

During his search, Xis passed by another set of cuboid containers. I'm not kidding when I say this, but these boxes contained **weapons**. There were weapons that stab like a bayonet, shoot like a rifle, incapacitate like a taser, or a combination of two or all three. It was quite frightening to think that for all this time the trio had spent indoors, they were just a floor away from mysterious explosives, emergency supplies and weapons of destruction.

If any of these fell into the wrong hands, claws or with anything that could hold, it would be worse than bad news for Xis. Fortunately, none of them had been opened and stolen from, as Xis observed during his second and subsequent basement round trips. He wasn't allowed to arm himself with the weapons for self defence, or else he'll have more than just questions to answer from his proprietor.

After searching from end to end several times without finding any intruders whatsoever, Xis' adrenaline started to wear off and sleepiness started to kick in, causing him to yawn loudly.

"They must have snuck out using the stairs," Xis said while scratching his head. "Or maybe that it was just my imagination," he continued as he rubbed his eyes. Retiring from his search, he placed the flashlight back onto the rack and headed for the stairs leading outside.

As Xis was leaving the basement, Cordon was watching him from a trapdoor in the basement ceiling, while observing his every move.

* * *

**AN: Thankfully, Kate, Cordon and Xis do not own the weapons or supplies themselves. But that begs the questions, "Who does?" and "Why are they stored here?" **


	23. 4:00am

"A different time will lead to a different experience," a quote echoed in Cordon's mind while he stood in thought. And he felt inclined to agree.

Cordon had just jumped through the waterfall like he did earlier in the day, but this time, it felt cool, refreshing and exciting. There was something about night-time that made things feel this way, and it was one of the reasons why Cordon loved the night.

"That felt great," Cordon said in a straight tone, but there was excitement underlying his voice. His heart was rushing in his chest and he could feel a genuine smile pushing up from the corners of his mouth. He put up no resistance to it; there was no rule for an stoic like him to not smile.

He exited out of the stream and began to pick up a long stick lying on the dirt path to use as a walking stick. This was the same stick that was in the aluminum tool shed in the backyard, which meant that he had bypassed the lock and took it. All it took for him was a straightened paper clip.

Cordon walked along the forest path to a place where there were a lot of flat stones that were submerged in water. He had been admiring these for quite a bit, and he thought it was high time that he put them to good use.

Nearby the site was a plant that had leaves as big as Cordon's head, so he used one of those as a bag to carry the stones. The edges of the leaf came together at the top for him to tie with a rubber band and carry. He got the rubber band, as well as coins and other small objects, from his white, bubble-like scarf around his neck.

Continuing along the path, Cordon encountered a chain link fence marking the boundary to a nature reserve. There was a door locked with a padlock, and Cordon easily unlocked it with his straightened paper clip. As he got past the door, Cordon followed the stream that continued alongside the path to a lake.

The lake was large and beautiful; the water was reflecting light off the blueish white moon that was prominent the dark blue night sky. Small waves gently lapped the surface of the lake, scattering the moonlight in all directions. To set the ambiance, a choir of chirping crickets could be heard from the banks.

Cordon walked along the lake edge to the place where there was the largest distance between two edges. He untied the rubber band of his bag of stones, and it laid flat like a place mat for a pile of stones.

Taking one of the stones randomly from the pile, Cordon looked at the water in front of him, closed his eyes and began to focus. Calculations of angles, momentum, and angular momentum began to float around in his mind. It was to bring about the right position, speed and spin to the rock in order for successful skipping. He then readied the stone in his fingers, adjusting each muscle within each finger to optimize the release, and wound up his throwing arm backwards. When the time was right, Cordon opened his eyes and flicked the stone into the lake with his wrist.

It was amazing throw; the stone skipped across the water perfectly horizontal to the water, never ceasing to lose its spin nor its speed. Perfectly circular ripples began to form consecutively one after the other as the stone skipped its way across the lake. The stone finally came to rest on the other side of the lake several hundred meters away.

"Perfect," Cordon said while he felt pleased with himself. It was part of his personality to remark to himself, as it gave himself an evaluation of his skills.

Cordon knew that from his second throw onwards, it would be worse than his first, so he threw the remaining stones for fun. All of the stones he threw made it at least halfway across the lake before sinking into the calm waters below.

After exhausting his supply of stones, Cordon made no hesitation to moving on with his next activity. As morning was drawing near, he wanted to squeeze as much of what little time he had, so he leapt into the lake with a running start.

Swimming skilfully across the chilly waters towards the center of the lake, Cordon submerged himself underwater in order to retrieve something that he purposefully sunk to the bottom of the lake. At this time of night (or any time at night, really), there was very little to no visibility under the water. Cordon had to fumble around a bit in order to find what he was looking for, and when he found it, he made his way back with it.

* * *

Cordon was seen walking out of the water while carrying a red toolbox in one arm. He then picked up the walking stick that he left there and headed toward a wooden pier nearby.

The pier was a structure that used to dock paddle and row boats for sightseeing, but now it was lonely and unused after the lake was contained inside the nature reserve. It wouldn't be so lonely and unused now that Cordon was here to keep it company.

Sitting at the edge of the pier, Cordon took out some string with a hook on one end and a bag of Stoutland Snacks from the toolbox he retrieved. By tying the stick to the free end of the string and attaching a biscuit to the hook as bait, Cordon was ready for some fishing. For him, it was the perfect activity to wind down after a night full of exploration and excitement.

As Cordon cast his line in the water, he looked up at the twinkling night sky above and the moon casting its blue-white glow on the earth below.

* * *

**AN: The Stoutland Snacks return! Do you remember it all the way from 10:00am, 18 hours back? Man, I feel like I've come a long way. **


	24. 5:00am

"What a night," Cordon sighed with satisfaction as he popped out of the trapdoor connecting between the basement and his room one floor up. Said trapdoor was just a square gap that would be concealed by some loose wooden planks.

After pushing a cardboard box over the wooden planks to further conceal the trapdoor, he then went to plonk himself onto the hammock, looking absolutely sacked but joyful. He had a jovial look in his eyes while he closed them, and he prepared himself for some sleep. While he laid there, he began to think about random things that happened when he was awake.

Like what happened at the basement, just two hours earlier. He felt relieved that Xis did not discover the passageway that he had kept secret between the basement and underneath the veranda. Behind a stack of futuristic looking crates were some bricks that could be easily be taken out and rebuilt, and it lead to a passageway that Cordon secretly dug out little by little to a large rock underneath the veranda, which acted as a cover.

When Cordon came back from the city, he wanted to get a paperclip from his room, but he accidentally knocked over the wall of loosened bricks, causing a sound that alerted his presence to Xis. In a rush, Cordon rebuilt the wall and hid it with some crates, and scurried up to his room before Xis could spot him. Since he didn't properly stack the crates, it was only a matter of time before Xis noticed it, so he created a distraction by toppling over a pile of boxes directly underneath the trapdoor. He then carefully observed Xis from the trapdoor, making all means necessary to keep him away from the exposed passageway. Fortunately, he didn't need to do anything more before he gave up.

Figuratively speaking, Xis wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. He was gullible and easy to manipulate, and Cordon enjoyed making jokes at his expense and giving him a hard time. For him, it was a way to keep him sane from the daytime slog.

But for all the things Cordon put him through, Xis still treated him as a valuable friend for years. His constant enthusiasm may be quite annoying at times, but it made Cordon feel somewhat comforted and uplifted. When Xis was talking with him about his long term goal to become strong for his friends, he felt feelings of admiration. Xis was working hard towards his goal, while Cordon was aimless and unmotivated. He secretly wanted to become more involved in spending time with him to pick up his motivation, but he was reluctant as Xis might be too friendly and won't give him enough personal space. Not to mention he'll get really weird looks from Kate.

Speaking of Kate, she's also one full of ambitions and dreams. At one point, Cordon had seen the map in her room, circled with two coloured pens; already traveled places were circled in green, and places she really wanted to travel were circled in red. Her long term goal was to travel to new places and find new experiences, and that was another thing that Cordon secretly wanted. He was glad Kate was the one to push them past their comfort zone and into the unknown, because had it been up to him, every day would be unchanging and stagnant.

After thinking about his friends, Cordon began to ask himself a simple question; 'What is my ambition?'

Should he try to become strong like Xis? As he thought about it, he began to take out the bottle that he bought from a pharmacy in the city. It was a Protean Supplement; he had consumed this everyday with his coffee in order to maintain his muscle mass. He'd figured that he was already strong enough with this, so this goal wasn't exactly for him.

Should he try to gain experiences like Kate? He could easily go solo and travel to wherever his whims will take him. But the more he thought about it, the less he wanted to do it; traveling required a lot of stressful planning and porting luggage, which are things that Kate and Xis were good at. He'd figured that if he wanted to travel, he should just tag along with them.

Should he try what the world wanted? That is, money, fame and power? Cordon didn't mind having extra money and power, but it just felt all too cliched and uninspired. He wanted something more creative than that; but no matter what he thought of, nothing seemed appealing to him.

* * *

After pondering about it for a long time, Cordon concluded that he'll just figure it out later in the future. But for now though, he'll just have to **live night by night** and see where it'll take him.

Upon this very thought, a quote began to echo in Cordon's mind. He had heard it while he was eavesdropping on Kate and Xis at one time, and it was read out to his mind in Kate's voice. **"Magikarp Diem."**

The quote means to 'seize the day'. However, for a Night Noctowl like Cordon, it seemed unsuitable for him. He knew a little bit of Latin himself, so he tweaked it a little to suit him:

"**Magikarp Noctem" **

Cordon's mind began to recite the phrase over and over in his mind until his thoughts faded away and into nothingness. He had fallen asleep, and he awaited the time when he would rise to **seize the night** again.

* * *

**AN: At this point, you're free to either stop here or continue on to read the extra chapter after this one. The extra chapter is a little weird, so if you feel you're up for it, then go ahead!**


	25. Extra - Epilogue

In a bizarre, unorthodox world where one half was complete darkness and the other half was unfading light, an Umbreon and an Espeon met with up with each other for the umpteenth where the two halves met. The duo were standing in their respective halves of Darkness and Light respectively.

The Umbreon was carrying the black and white baton in his mouth, designed much like the world he resided in. He intended to give it to the Espeon so that the world could transition from night back into day.

"Sister!" the Umbreon urged the Espeon in a serious tone. " I... er, dozed off, so please take it posthaste!"

"Er, very well Brother..." the Espeon said hesitantly as she attempted to take the baton from the Umbreon. Unfortunately, the Baton Passing went a little awkwardly, and the Espeon ended up holding the baton in her mouth like a cigarette.

"And... cut!" an adult male voice shouted from off the scene. It then said to the Umbreon and Espeon, "Good enough, both of you! Can you wrap up the fanfic before you head home?"

"Sure." the Umbreon replied.

"Of course!" the Espeon replied as well.

"All right, have a good week," the voice said and disappeared. Behind the Umbreon and Espeon, a couple of Vigoroths began to take the background apart, revealing that the whole scene was just a movie set. The two paid no attention to what was going on behind them and began to talk to someone in front of a screen. (In other words, its you!)

"Well, we want to say on behalf of the Author..." the Umbreon said seriously and stoically.

"Thank you very much for reading this fanfic!" the Espeon cheerfully replied.

"We owe it all to the readers, reviewers and the Creator for their contribution to this work," the Umbreon continued.

"And when we mean Creator, we don't mean the Author!" the Espeon said with a wink.

"You've seen how Kate, Xis and Cordon made the most of their lives..." said the Umbreon.

"...so now it's your turn to do the same!" the Espeon continued.

"Whether it's having a picnic with your loved ones or just cleaning..."

"...make sure to make the most of what life offers you,"

"Because you might never get this chance again," the Umbreon said with a grim grin. In response, the Espeon stopped him and gave a nod a disapproval before they resumed their conversation.

"So go out to the world..." uttered the Umbreon.

"...and fill every second with precious memories!" expressed the Espeon.

"**Magikarp Diem!"** the Espeon shouted aloud.

"**Magikarp Noctem!"** the Umbreon also shouted aloud.

"**Seize the Day and Night!"** the both shouted together in unison, as the camera panned up and away.

**THE END**

* * *

_"Oh, and be sure to check out the Author's profile or PM him for any questions you might have!" the Espeon pulled the camera down to her face and talked, before turning it off._


End file.
